Iolanthe is a
comic opera with music by
Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by
W. S. Gilbert. First performed in 1882 as the seventh
Gilbert and Sullivan operatic collaboration, it tells the story of Iolanthe, a fairy banished from fairyland because she married a mortal. Her son Strephon, half a fairy, loves Phyllis, whom all the members of the House of Peers wish to marry. Phyllis sees Strephon embracing Iolanthe (as fairies never age, she appears to be seventeen) and assumes that he is unfaithful, not realizing that Iolanthe is his mother, setting off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society.
Iolanthe was the first new theatre production in the world to be illuminated entirely by electric lights. It premiered at the
Savoy Theatre and ran there for 398 performances, with a simultaneous production in New York. It is still played throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. This poster by
H. M. Brock was produced for an early-20th-century tour production of
Iolanthe by the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Poster credit: H. M. Brock; restored by Adam Cuerden
