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Portrait of Iolanthe

Opera · Opera in English

Iolanthe

25 November 1882, Savoy Theatre, London

Arthur Sullivan · libretto by W. S. Gilbert

A fairy banished for marrying a mortal is pardoned after twenty-five years; her half-fairy son, a shepherd who is a fairy down to the waist, is sent into Parliament to torment the House of Lords, and the whole peerage ends up winged. Subtitled "The Peer and the Peri", it was the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera to open at the Savoy Theatre, and its satire on hereditary legislators, party discipline and the law is the sharpest political writing in the canon.

How to spot them

  • ▸An Arcadian landscape in Act 1 and Palace Yard, Westminster, in Act 2
  • ▸A shepherd who is a fairy to the waist but whose legs are mortal
  • ▸A Ward in Chancery courted by the entire House of Lords and by her own guardian
  • ▸A marching chorus of peers in full robes and coronets, preceded by trumpets
  • ▸Subtitled 'The Peer and the Peri'

Arias & moments — listen

"When you're lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is taboo'd by anxiety" — a patter song describing a whole night's bad dream in one breath (1882)

The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song, ending 'the night has been long — ditto, ditto my song — and thank goodness they're both of them over!'

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"When Britain really ruled the waves, in good Queen Bess's time" — a peer argues that the House of Peers did nothing in particular, and did it very well (1882)

Lord Mountararat's Act 2 song, the central joke of the political satire

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Loudly let the trumpet bray! Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!" — the entrance march of the entire peerage in coronets and robes (1882)

The Act 1 Peers' Chorus, among the most spectacular entrances Sullivan wrote

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Tripping hither, tripping thither, nobody knows why or whither" — the opening chorus of fairies dancing in a glade (1882)

Celia, Leila and Fleta lead the fairies, who have been bored for a quarter of a century

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"The law is the true embodiment of everything that's excellent" — a judge who cannot give his ward's hand to himself without a conflict of interest (1882)

The Lord Chancellor's entrance song; he later 'takes counsel with himself' in a mock legal consultation

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

A law that every fairy who marries a mortal must die is rescued by inserting the single word 'don't' (1882)

The finale: the Fairy Queen has the statute amended so that every fairy who does NOT marry a mortal must die; the peers sprout wings and fly to Fairyland

Quick-fire facts

  • •Opened at the Savoy Theatre on 25 November 1882 — the first of the operas to have its premiere there — and ran for 398 performances.
  • •It opened simultaneously in New York, at the Standard Theatre, to forestall American pirate productions.
  • •The Savoy was the first public building in the world lit throughout by electricity, and the fairies' wands and headdresses carried tiny electric lights powered by concealed batteries.
  • •Characters: the Fairy Queen, Iolanthe, Strephon, Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Tolloller, Earl Mountararat and Private Willis of the Grenadier Guards.
  • •Private Willis's Act 2 song observes that every boy and every gal born into the world alive is either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative.
  • •Strephon threatens to carry every bill through both Houses, since a fairy cannot be resisted, and the Lords' response is to abolish competitive examination in the public service.
  • •The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song is the most demanding patter song Sullivan wrote, and is usually taken at breakneck speed.
  • •The title was kept secret until the first night; the piece had been rehearsed under the decoy name 'Perola'.

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