Product Details

• Actors: Derek Hammond-Stroud, Beverley Mills, Anne Collins, Alexander Oliver, Kate Flowers
• Directors: Dave Heather
• Writers: William S. Gilbert
• Producers: George Walker, Judith de Paul
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acorn Media
• DVD Release Date: October 22, 2002
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006JU6L
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,575 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Gilbert & Sullivan: Iolanthe" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Even by the unreal standards of Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe is a fanciful piece of work, in which Fairyland meets the House of Lords. Needless to say, the lords--a superbly dimwitted bunch--don't triumph. The title character was once banished from the fairy kingdom, and now she returns as the marriage of her son, Strephon, is imperiled by Parliament. Mixing satire with ethereal fantasy (though the fairies are earthly enough to have a taste for men in authority), all set to a lush score, the piece holds together miraculously.

This version is not ideal, with lots of mugging and condescending to the material. There are failed stabs at cleverness, such as a witless pseudo-newsreel that marks Strephon's run for Parliament. Still, the charm of the piece comes through. Kate Flowers as Strephon's fiancée, Phyllis, is a delight; she sings radiantly and conveys the driest possible blend of modesty and narcissism. As the Queen of the Fairies, Anne Collins puts her weighty contralto to good comic use. She is commanding but endearing, especially when she sings amorously to the fire captain.

Part of the Opera World series of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas made for television, this one has the strengths and weaknesses of an uneven series. Visual and sound quality are muddier than they should be, and, for better or worse, the operettas are presented without the updating that's frequently done, just as Gilbert wrote them, obscure references and all. --David Olivenbaum

Product Description

GILBERT & SULLIVAN:IOLANTHE - DVD Movie

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Bother, May 11, 2001

By 

English Teacher (Wheatland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan - Iolanthe / Hammond-Stroud, Mills, Collins, Opera World [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I love Iolanthe. I was, therefore, very disappointed by this production. Although it was obvious that much thought (and money) had gone into preparation of the scenery, costuming, staging, etc., still it never quite worked. Especially in the beginning, the singing seemed off-key, and even a little bit off-beat. I thought the fairies all the way through looked and acted silly, as did the peers. Where did all that hand-waving come from? And the scenery became boring as scene after scene was acted in what looked like church pews and around papier-mache statues. And why were the Lord Chancellor and the two lords in bed together???

One of the things I love about G&S is the sublime juxtaposition of intensely emotional, musically beautiful moments and silly scenes that shatter the emotion and scatter all seriousness. I don't think this entire production ever rose above silly--the actors were all self-consciously ridiculous. My favorite scene, where Iolanthe pleads with the Lord Chancellor--willingly sacrificing her life for her son's happiness, to the accompanying lamentation of the women's choir--was entirely spoiled by the pace of the music, which was rushed, and by the sight of feet and hands waving around above the aforesaid pews in a senseless manner. The eruption of the fairies into the scene did not break the enchanted mood. There was no mood to break. The fairies as ballerinas didn't work well, either. And the peers, even in their first entrance, which is a marvelous piece of stately music, never had even the slightest hint of dignity--which ruins the audience's "aha!" recognition that they are very silly indeed. Strephon, Iolanthe, and Phyllis were well-cast and well-sung, but couldn't save this plodding production.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Iolanthe, February 8, 2006

By 

Ted Zoldan (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: Iolanthe (DVD)

The Opera World Gilbert and Sullivan DVD series is a definite mixed bag, but this is one of the strongest entries in it. While not on the level of PATIENCE, THE GONDOLIERS and THE SORCERER, the video is a solid interpretation strongly cast.

As usual, the chorus and Orchestra perform well and Alexander Faris moves things along nicely at the podium. Luckily, there are no cuts except for a slightly abbreviated overture. The production has its definite pluses (Strephon's attempted suicide, the not-so dainty fairies hanging their wings out to dry and smoking cigarettes) and it's minuses (cheesy, overused superimposed special effects, the staging of the Act two Finale.). As for the infamous news reel, I feel it's a funny, workable gag, but it resembles a Benny Hill gag a bit too much for my taste (though Alexander Oliver is a joy to watch in this segment. His facial expressions are hysterical.)

Out of the performers, high marks go to Anne Collins' Fairy Queen, at her usual standard of beyond exemplary every line reading and phrase spun to perfection, and Kate Flowers, a completely charming Phyllis. She is a beautiful woman with a wonderfully expressive face, and her dialogue is delivered with apt humor. Musically, she is beyond reproach; I fell in love with her on sight. Also extremely effective is Derek Hammond-Stroud as the Lord Chancellor. A mainstay in the patter parts, he is in much better voice than he was in PATIENCE, and the lower tessitura of the role suits his Bass-Baritone better. He is very apt and dry in the dialogue. It's incredible to think that he also was ENO's leading Alberich in Wagner's RING for years, because the pathos he gives to the Lord Chancellor's legalistic troubles ("Can a man give his own consent to marry his own ward, etc?") is so keenly felt along with the humor.

We have David Hillman's expressive vocalism and foppish delivery put to good use as Tollollor, but Thomas Hemsley is too light for Mountararat. The same problem sets with Alexander Oliver's Strephon. He is a tenor rather than the usual lyric baritone. Though tenor John Fryatt made an effective Grovesner in PATIENCE, and I've heard effective Strephons who are tenors, but Oliver does not have the required heft, and he doesn't have the vocal power for most of the role. In his favor, the two dues with Phyllis and "In babyhood, upon her lap I lay," the meat of the role, go over very well. He's very, very funny in his spoken passages and he's an appropriate screen presence. When Strephon is transformed into a dark-suited, monocle-wearing MP He does a brilliant spoof on british bureaucratic figures.

As the tilter Iolanthe, Beverly Mills has a very attractive Mezzo, but the unrewarding part of Iolanthe does not offer many vocal high points with the exception of the exquisite "He loves" and she is only passable in the dialogue. Richard van Allen, a great Basso, is luxury casting as Willis (a Bass part too often given to Baritones) and what a pleasure it is to see two major sopranos as Lelia and Celia: my old favorite Sandra Dugale (who also was Patience, Rose Maybud and Casilda in the series) and Pamela Field (who was a leading soprano with the D'Oyly Carte in the early seventies and who recorded the role of Phyllis with them.) are both delightful. Judi Trott (an uncredited member of the chorus) speaks her lines as Fleta well. All in all, a highly entertaining, worthy version with many attractions. 4/5

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not THAT bad, actually., September 19, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan - Iolanthe / Hammond-Stroud, Mills, Collins, Opera World [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Unlike the more 'universal' works of, say, Wagner or Verdi, the Savoy operas are so time-, society- and culture-specific (late Victorian England: the Law, the Empire, the Parliament etc.) that you cannot modernise them without doing a great deal of damage. This means retaining heavy, pageant-like costumes and sets and a rigid style of vocal delivery, which usually leads to the kind of stodgy mausoleum staging that puts so many people off Gilbert and Sullivan.

One way around this problem is to play around with form. This charming film of arguably G&S's greatest work is thoroughly traditional in its staging, but takes a great deal of liberties with (admittedly cheap) special effects as it tries to approximate a gossamer fairy world intruding on the heavy formalism of the House of Lords. Strange camera angles, playful acting, witty bits of business, cheeky choreography and mock newsreel footage add up to a lively, if crude, performance, while retaining all the traditional pleasures - Gilbert's glorious word-play; his devastating social satire and mocking of popular modes of sensational and sentimental melodrama; Sullivan's brilliant tightrope act between parody and emotion.

The sense of nightmare inherent in Gilbert's story of a Lord Chancellor whose love for his ward provokes the enmity of the Fairy World and the dissolution of his identity and the social assumptions he has long based on it, is brought brilliantly alive in the sequence near the end of Act 1 when the fairies engulf the Chamber; while the homosocial world Gilbert portrayed - playing on both meanings of the word 'fairy' - is deliciously foregrounded.