Iolanthe

Plot synopsis:
Act I
Twenty-five years before the beginning of the opera, the fairy Iolanthe committed the capital crime (under fairy law) of marrying a mortal human. The Queen of the fairies commuted Iolanthe's sentence of death to banishment for life on the condition that Iolanthe left her husband and never communicated with him again. After the passage of 25 years, the fairies, still missing Iolanthe deeply, plead with their Queen to pardon Iolanthe and to restore her place in fairyland ("Tripping hither, tripping thither").
Summoned by the Fairy Queen ("Iolanthe! From thy dark exile thou art summoned"), Iolanthe rises from the frog-infested stream that has been her home in exile. The Queen, unable to bear punishing her any longer, pardons Iolanthe, who is warmly greeted by the other fairies. Iolanthe tells her sisters that she has a son, Strephon, noting that he's a fairy down to the waist, but his legs are mortal. The fairies laugh that Iolanthe appears too young to have a grown son, as one of the advantages of a fairy's immortality is that they never grow old. Strephon, a handsome Arcadian shepherd, arrives and meets his aunts ("Good-morrow, good mother"). He tells Iolanthe of his love for the Lord Chancellor's ward of court, the beautiful Phyllis, who does not know of Strephon's mixed origin. Strephon is despondent, however, as the Lord Chancellor has forbidden them to marry, partly because he feels that a shepherd is unsuitable for Phyllis, but partly because the Lord Chancellor wishes to marry Phyllis himself. In fact, so do half the members of Britain's House of Lords. The Fairy Queen promises her assistance ("Fare thee well, attractive stranger"). Soon Phyllis arrives, and she and Strephon share a moment of tenderness as they plan their future and possible elopement ("Good-morrow, good lover"; "None shall part us from each other").
A cadre of the peers of the realm arrive in noisy splendour ("Loudly let the trumpet bray" and "The law is the true embodiment"). They are all smitten with Phyllis, and they have appealed to the Lord Chancellor to decide who will have her hand. The Lord Chancellor hesitates to act upon his own regard for Phyllis due to his position as her guardian. The Lords send for Phyllis to choose one of their number, but she will not marry any of them, as virtue is found only in a "lowly" cottage ("My well-loved Lord" and "Nay, tempt me not"). The peers beg her not to scorn them simply because of their "blue blood" ("Spurn not the nobly born" and "My lords, it may not be"). Strephon approaches the Lord Chancellor, pleading that Nature bids him marry Phyllis. But the Lord Chancellor wryly notes that Strephon has not presented sufficient evidence that Nature has interested herself in the matter. He refuses his consent to the marriage between Strephon and Phyllis ("When I went to the Bar").
Disappointed, Strephon calls on Iolanthe for help. She appears and promises to support her son. Spying on the two, the peers – led by the brainless and stuffy Earls Tolloller and Mountararat – together with Phyllis, see Iolanthe and Strephon in a warm embrace. All three jump to the obvious conclusion, since the centuries-old Iolanthe appears to be a girl of seventeen ("When darkly looms the day"). The peers scoff at the seemingly absurd claim that Iolanthe is Strephon's mother as Strephon pleads: "She is, has been, my mother from my birth!" Phyllis angrily rejects Strephon for his supposed infidelity and declares that she will marry either Lord Tolloller or Lord Mountararat ("...and I don't care which!"). Strephon then calls for help from the fairies, who appear but are mistaken by the peers for a girls' school on an outing. Offended, the Fairy Queen pronounces a magical "sentence" upon the peers: Strephon shall not only become a Member of Parliament, but will have the power to pass any bill he proposes ("With Strephon for your foe, no doubt").
Act II
Private Willis, on night guard duty, paces outside the Palace of Westminster and muses on political life ("When all night long a chap remains"). The fairies arrive and tease the peers about the success of MP Strephon, who is advancing a bill to open the peerage to competitive examination ("Strephon's a member of Parliament"). The peers ask the fairies to stop Strephon's mischief, stating that the House of Peers is not susceptible of any improvement ("When Britain really ruled the waves"). Although the fairies say that they cannot stop Strephon, they have become strongly attracted to the peers ("In vain to us you plead"). The fairy Queen is dismayed by this. Pointing to Private Willis of the First Grenadier Guards, who is still on duty, the Queen claims that she is able to subdue her response to the effects of his manly beauty ("Oh, foolish fay").
Phyllis cannot decide whether she ought to marry Tolloller or Mountararat, and so she leaves the choice up to them. Tolloller tells Mountararat that his family's tradition would require the two Earls to duel to the death if the latter were to claim Phyllis. The two decide that their friendship is more important than love and renounce their claims to her ("Though p'r'aps I may incur thy blame"). The Lord Chancellor arrives dressed for bed and describes a nightmare caused by his unrequited love for Phyllis ("Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest"). The two peers try to cheer him up and urge him to make another effort to persuade himself to award Phyllis to ... himself ("If you go in you're sure to win").
Strephon now leads both parties in Parliament, but he is miserable at losing Phyllis. He sees Phyllis and reveals to her that his mother is a fairy, which accounts for her apparent youth ("If we're weak enough to tarry"). Phyllis and Strephon ask Iolanthe to plead with the Lord Chancellor to allow their marriage, for "none can resist your fairy eloquence." This is impossible, she replies, for the Lord Chancellor is her husband. He believes Iolanthe to have died childless, and she is bound not to "undeceive" him, under penalty of death. However, to save Strephon from losing his love, Iolanthe resolves to present his case to the Lord Chancellor while veiled ("My lord, a suppliant at your feet").
Although the Lord Chancellor is moved by her appeal, which evokes the memory of his wife, he declares that he himself will marry Phyllis. Desperate, Iolanthe unveils, ignoring the warnings of the unseen Fairies, revealing that she is his long-lost wife, and Strephon is his son. The Lord Chancellor is amazed to see her alive, but Iolanthe has again broken fairy law, and the Fairy Queen is now left with no choice but to punish Iolanthe with death ("It may not be ... Once again thy vow is broken"). As she prepares to execute Iolanthe, the Queen learns that the rest of the fairies have chosen husbands from among the peers, thus also incurring death sentences – but the Queen blanches at the prospect of slaughtering all of them. The Lord Chancellor suggests a solution: change the law by inserting a single word: "every fairy shall die who doesn't marry a mortal." The Fairy Queen cheerfully agrees and, to save her life, the dutiful soldier, Private Willis, agrees to marry her. Seeing no reason to stay in the mortal realm if peers are to be recruited "from persons of intelligence", the peers join the fairy ranks and "away [they] go to fairyland" ("Soon as we may, off and away").

Tags: fantasy

Review:
Wonderful performance with a few minor glitches. When I bought this video, I had no idea what this opera was about, not to mention no idea what the music was like.  I bought it because I was, and still am, a big fanatic of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.  So this video was my first exposure to this particular opera.  I enjoyed this video more than I had some of the previous videos I bought (H.M.S. Pinafore for example).  The cast delivers a wonderful performance, especially Derek Hammond-Stroud in the role of the Lord Chancellor.  Though I prefer the D'Oyly Carte recording with John Reed as the Lord Chancellor, Hammond-Stroud gives a strong performance along with most of the other cast members.  The only member of the cast I didn't care for was Alexander Oliver in the role of Strephon.  I just can't figure out why they cast a tenor in a baritone role.  Not only that, he also kind of "overacted" a bit during some of his dialogue scenes.  Another complaint is that a member of the chorus of peers was noticeably flat, which made the processional song sort of uncomfortable to listen to.  Over all, however, it's a wonderful production with many strong points which more than compensate for its few faults.. Intoxicating. I always have loved Gilbert and Sullivan, for their wonderful, catchy music, memorable characters and witty lyrics and dialogues, who more than makes up for the occasionally daft stories. I found this D'Oyly Carte Iolanthe intoxicating, and one of the better D'Oyly Carte G&S productions alongside Cox and Box and Patience, better than HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzanze and Yeomen anyway.Visually, it is quite charming. The costumes and sets are certainly handsome, and while not amazing the effects are better than average. Iolanthe rising from her watery sojourn is an effective touch. The choreography has some clumsy moments, but again some nice moments like the fairies with their wings out to dry and the fairy struggling to keep up with the others that add some light-hearted entertainment to the proceedings. The dialogue is suitably witty, the chorus apart from some flatness in the processional scene are well-balanced and pitched and not too static, the orchestra play stylistically and beautifully and the conducting not too rushed and dragging.The performances are great. Alexander Oliver may turn some heads as Strephon, especially as it is a baritone role rather than a tenor role, but I found him quite fun, far better than his Frederick in Pirates of Penzanze. John Helmsley may lack a little bit of resonance for When Britain Really Ruled the Waves, but otherwise sings and characterises well. David Hillman is likewise excellent, and Derek Hammond-Stroud is an exemplary Lord Chancellor. Kate Flowers is a charming Phyllis, and Richard Van Allan's Willis luxurious casting. Anne Collins's Queen of the Fairies is superb. The little bits of business are never too overdone.All in all, an intoxicating Iolanthe. 9/10 Bethany Cox. Very enjoyable. This production of Iolanthe was one of a series produced by the same people.I liked it a lot, despite the use of some "special effects" that are supposed to be magical and fairy-like and which look, after 25 years, rather dated. This is probably because of the lively performances of the leading members of the cast.The first-act finale was great, and the nightmare song in the second act was handled in an interesting way that worked pretty well. However, "If you go in," the famous trio that follows it, looked awkward. At least until they all got going and the joy of the music outweighed the strange staging.All in all, it was a very entertaining performance.. Okay, but not good. As a fullblown Gilbert and Sullivan Fan, I found this version of the opera rather strange. The cast was good, Kate Flowers (Phyliss) and Anne Collins as the Fariy Queen were standouts. The effect were really bad though, And I just don't like Good old Derrik in the part of the LC. The sets were imagentetive, but weird.