Customer Reviews

Iolanthe, or the Peer & the Peri: Vocal Score with Dialogue

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Few opera/operetta librettos read very well on their own (of course, they weren't intended to). In the case of Gilbert and Sullivan, the exercise is not only sheer pleasure, but almost a necessity; such is the speed of the monologues and intricacy of the ensembles that much of Gilbert's brilliant verbal wit gets lost.

'Iolanthe' is one of his most enrapturing confections, the story of a shepherd, Strephon, half-fairy half-mortal, whose mother, Iolanthe, is a disgraced sprite (it is forbidden for fairies to marry mortals), and whose father (unbeknownst to either) is the Lord Chancellor who won't let him marry his ward, Phyllis, darling of the Lords.

The material may be fantastic, the setting pastoral, but the satire in this 1882 work is spot-on contemporary, with jibes at the Irish problem, the uselessness of the House of Lords (who as a caste are as close to fantasy as the fairies, so it is no surprise they exchange the House of Peers for the House of Peris), and the ruling class' fear of democracy and universal suffrage. A most delightful fancy has the fairies take over Parliament in the shape of Strephon, whose every whim unites the notoriously factional Liberal and Conservative in his favour.

this is Gilbert at his funniest - the verbal contortions he undergoes in the search for rhymes break all linguistic boundaries, and his view of the fragility of centuries-old English institutions prescient. There is an extraordinary patter song by the Lord Chancellor which shows the man embodying Law and Constitution plunging into nightmare, the culmination of a libretto in which identities and forms, as well as seemingly irrevocable laws and customs, are repeatedly broken down or metamorphosed.

Great! A marvelous satire of Victorian politics. Iolanthe, a fairy, has a son, Stephon, who is half mortal and cannot marry his true love because the entire House of Lords is in love with her too! To revenge themselves on the Peers, the fairies put Strephon into Parliament and arrange it so every bill he chooses is passed into law.

It was the G & S operetta I wanted and ordered and the edition I specified

I am actually going to be in the performance of this hilarious piece. I really like it, it's just good old fashioned British humor.

If you are going to watch a performance of Iolanthe, you might enjoy having a copy of this to follow what's going on. It goes fast in places, and is sometimes hard to follow even for someone who has gone through it several times. It truly is awesome!

This has been the standard vocal score for "Iolanthe" since I first performed in it about 1960. It certainly was not new even then. It is well-printed on good, creamy paper. The musical notation and the accompanying lyrics are of convenient size and clarity. Dialogue passages are printed in block in the appropriate places between musical numbers. The binding is thick paper. Personal experience has shown that it is hardy enough to survive three or four consecutive productions.

The contents reflect the standard performing version of "Iolanthe" used throughout the Twentieth Century by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Among the G&S canon, "Iolanthe" has been subject to less innovation than most. The only significant cut was a song for Strephon called "Fold Your Flapping Wings," which was held to be too political. (My copy of this score is now the better part of fifty years old. I do not know whether the publisher modified its printing plates to include Strephon's song when the New D'Oyly Carte Opera Company restored it to the stage in the early 1990s.) This score is otherwise very close to the version conducted by Sullivan on opening night back in the 1880s.