GENERAL
Originally 'Peri' referred to a type of Persian fairy although it came to be used for others as well. The Persian peris are beautiful but malignant who wear beautifully colored robes and have wings. They are descended from fallen angels and play all sorts of tricks, especially with the weather. For one story see the article Fairies Who Marry Mortals.

Iolanthe is a ‘fairy opera', one of several Gilbert wrote involving the interaction of fairies and mortals. The music is dainty and fairy-like for the most part and seems to pay homage to Mendelssohn and his overture and incidental music for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hints of Wagner are also noted in several places including the Queen's costume, Iolanthe's rise from the river with its echoes of Das Rheingold and the fairies cries of Aiaiah, willallo.

Gilbert attacks the pretensions of the Peers, not their politics; much of the satire still applies to the law and policies of today. Both the fairies and the Peers blindly follow conventions they don't understand, the fairies of their law and the Peers of the House in which their laws are made. The two acts of the opera mirror each other in that the Peers are out of their normal milleu in Act I and the fairies are similarly displaced at Westminster. It is all very topsy-turvy.

Note: There are problems with Gilbert's ending. See the discussion in the article on fairies.

NOTES ON THE SYNOPSIS
Geographically Arcadia is a region of the Peloponnesian area of Greece. It was the home of temples of Zeus and Hera and of the classical Olympic stadium. Now rustic, secluded, and mainly inhabited by herdsman, the name is used to conjure up the image of a romantic and idyllic landscape. Much of Act I of Iolanthe is a satire on traditional Arcadian romances in which the sun always shines, and innocent shepherds and shepherdesses live simply and happily. Phyllis and Strephon are traditional names associated with this setting. There was an similar early genre of the pastoral which later developed into comic opera.

The time must be flexible because there are references to Waterloo (1815), George III (r. 1760-1820) and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, first published in 1835. So how could the story take place between 1700 and 1882? Maybe time in fairyland sometimes goes backwards.

ACT I
Although the fairies sing of being dainty, productions sometimes make them clomp on in an ungainly way. (If all are not like this, there is often just one who stands out as a klutz). The fairies dance around their fairy ring which may refer to the so-called "fairy ring" found in grass which is caused by mushrooms.

The Queen is one of the great contralto roles in the Savoy operas, comparable to Katisha in The Mikado. She is usually older and more matronly than the other fairies, referring to herself as stout. In the first production she was dressed with in an armor-like corselette, wore a hat with horns, and carried a spear. In other words she suggests Brünnhilde in Wagner's Ring Cycle. Sullivan was a Wagner fan, and the Queen is just one of the Wagnerian echoes found in Iolanthe.

According to fairy lore there are three layers in any water realm. The top is where humans go to swim, boat etcetera, and the water people build their cities in the middle layer. However, the bottom layer is dark and dismal, the mire, a place of punishment and exile; that is where poor Iolanthe is living. Some suggest that the frogs are a not-so-complimentary reference to the French who eat frogs' legs. Iolanthe's move into the river might suggest moving to France, an unhappy prospect for many Britons at the time. Jesse Bond, the first Iolanthe, tells how one night a property man put some real frogs in the water. She objected, and they had to be fished out using an upside down umbrella. The performance was delayed for some time!

The image of the rather large Queen curling in a buttercup flower is rather amusing. Her invocation of Iolanthe is another Wagnerian reference, in this case to the Rhine maidens. Some of the music resembles that in his opera Tristan und Isolde.

Jesse Bond tells us how the river was staged so that she did not really get wet: "It was a shallow trough of real water, and I was always afraid of slipping into it when I rose through the trap-door on my little platform and crossed it on the lily leaves which were my stepping stones. I did in fact slip in once, when some idiot had repainted the lily leaves just before the performance, so I had to wade through the water and climb out feeling very cross, and with the most realistic wet feet."

A flageolet is an end-blown instrument similar to a flute. The sound usually comes from the orchestra as Strephon mimics playing.

Bands are two short strips of white cloth about 5" by 1" worn in front below the collar by some judges and clergymen in England. Bombazine is a stiff black fabric which was often used to make the gowns for legal personnel and widows.

Strephon would not go to the House of Lords (he is not a peer), but the House of Commons whose members are elected from boroughs (like election districts in the United States). The fact that the Queen has some boroughs at her command is interesting. She would have had to own a lot of land or have influence over someone who did.

In a passage which was later deleted we are told why the humble shepherdess Phyllis is a Ward of Chancery. Her father was a simple army private and therefore judged unfit to look after her money. We are not told the source of this fortune.

This procession has been compared to others in grand opera such as the Wedding March from Wagner's Lohengrin, the procession of the apprentices in his Die Meistersinger and the triumphal march in Verdi's Aïda. It certainly is the grandest in any of the Savoy operas. Today it is sometimes used at graduations or even at weddings. The Peers represented members of the orders of the Garter, the Thistle, Patrick and Bath. Tarantara is supposed to imitate trumpets.

The Lord Chancellor is one of most appealing of Gilbert's characters. Merry and eccentric, he literally kicks up his heals, but he is honest and takes his job seriously. Henry Lytton found the Lord Chancellor's nightmare aria the most suitable of his numbers for private concerts.

Tolloller is taken from nonsense syllables. They are used later in the refrain "Taradiddle, tol lol lay". Taradiddle means a fib. Tol lol means 'so-so'.

Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey is traditionally thought to be where Noah's Ark landed. The Bible says in "the mountains of Ararat", not a specific peak and not necessarily the present mountain but a geographic area.

The Bar of the House is not the same as the bar in British courts. Each House of Parliament has a bar which separates a space for non-members from the rest of the chamber. Those appealing to the Lords appeared at the Bar and knelt. (Picture)

Unlike the working class, the elite avoided the sun at all costs and thus did not develop tans. Thus the blood in their veins look blue against their white skin. The term is actually of Spanish origin to indicate those with no Moorish blood. It was assumed that those of blue blood were taught good behavior as children.

Belgrave Square is one the grandest residence areas in London. Seven Dials is a place where seven streets converge. During the reign of Charles II there was a pillar there with seven sundials, one facing each street. In Gilbert's time it was in a slum area near Covent Garden (as depicted in My Fair Lady), but is now being gentrified.

Traditionally the Finale in the middle of a light opera contains no recitative or spoken words but is sung throughout with the orchestra. The finale at the end of Act I of Iolanthe is the longest in any Savoy opera, running about nineteen minutes. On opening night the entire Iolanthe finale was encored and this became the custom throughtout Britain. (The Act II finale lasts less than two minutes.) In this case, the Queen does speak some lines but the orchestra is playing in the background.

In Italian Dolce fa niente literally means "sweet to do nothing". Gilbert needed a word to rhyme with twenty and the only English word which does is ‘plenty', not applicable here.

Festina lente is Latin for "make haste slowly".

At the time, the word swain Phyllis uses in reference to Strephon meant someone in a lowly position. Now it is used for a suitor of any sort.

While the wife of a duke is a duchess and of a baron is a baroness, et cetera, there is no earless. There is no Count in the British peerage, but Countess is used for the wife of an earl, a rank comparable to a Count on the continent.

In a verse in which the words vagary, fairy, chary, library, and seminary all rhyme, there is also the word quandary which doesn't seem to rhyme. This didn't bother Gilbert and, in fact, it is occasionally pronounced quanDARY in Britain which works here. The library refers to the books of Hans Christian Andersen which started to appear in 1835.

Since all of the peers are landed gentry with country estates, the openings of the grouse-hunting and salmon-fishing seasons was important to them and, traditionally, they left London and Parliament at that time. Parliament usually met from late afternoon until late at night, but peers left early on Friday so they could get to their constituencies for the weekend.

Marriage with a deceased wife's sister was forbidden in 1835 by the Church of England. For years thereafter the House of Commons would pass a law allowing it which the House of Lords would always veto. Finally, in the twentieth century, Parliament did make such marriages legal. Note: The Bible forbids a man to marry his dead brother's wife. The resulting marriage would be childless (Leviticus 20:21). This was used by Henry VIII to justify the annulment of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon which had produced only a daughter, the future Mary. This action led to the downfall of two famous Lord Chancellors

The idea of Competitive exams for many jobs was very popular at the time. That they might have to show some intelligence to become members of Parliament was indeed shocking to the Peers.

Here the fairies show their education by knowing the meaning of the foreign words the peers use.
Canaille is French for the dregs of society.
Plebs is Latin for lower classes. Today however its plural, plebes, is used for first year students at West Point and Annapolis.
Hoi polloi is Greek for the lower classes.

ACT II
The Grenadier Guards are members pf the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army having been formed in 1656 by King Charles II. As Gilbert well knew, the Houses of Parliament are guarded by the police, not the military, but since the guards are more colorful in their red coats, he took a little liberty. The Grenadier Guards are noted for their height and physique and would surely appeal to the Fairy Queen. Gilbert did make sure Willis was armed with the correct Guard rifle.

The entrance of the fairies on the first night caused a sensation. The principals had small electric stars in their heads powered by batteries concealed on their shoulders.

As in the United States, there are several stages involved in the passage of a bill in Parliament. After the second reading a bill is sent to a committee .

Pickford's was a well-known moving company with the slogan ‘We carry everything'.

The music of Mountararat's aria had been called Handelian. Gilbert later said the lyrics did not represent his own views but those "of the wrong-headed donkey who sings them". Some are: "The House of Peers made no pretense to intellectual eminence or scholarship sublime; yet Britain won her proudest bays in good Queen Bess's days" and "and while the House of Peers withholds its legislative hand, and noble statesmen do not itch to interfere with matters which they do not understand ... as in King George's glorious days. Bays are the bay or laurel leaves of a hero's crown. The George referred to is George III.

The age of Private Willis has been much debated. Is he as young as the rest of the fairies or, since the Queen is usually older, does his age match hers? He is often played as a man of about fifty.

Captain Shaw was the Chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and one of the most popular men in London. By accident of design he was seated in the center of the orchestra on opening night. Knowing this, and to the delight of the audience, the Queen sang the following directly to him

Oh, Captain Shaw!
   Type of true love kept under!
      Could thy Brigade
      With cold cascade
   Quench my true love, I wonder!

A great deal of England's wealth came from the Irish estates of English Lords who exploited them for their own advantage, leaving the Irish tenants in poverty. If a Lord gave up this income, he would become poor himself.

Patter songs are a staple in Italian comic opera including Cinderella. The object is to have: "The greatest number of words uttered in the shortest possible time". They are extremely difficult. For one thing they are usually solos and are easier to sing clearly in Italian with its many vowels than in English with all the important consonants which must be pronounced for the words to be understood. There are a number of patter songs in Gilbert and Sullivan, however, as Despard in Ruddigore sings: "This particular rapid, unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter".

A musical joke, F sharp minor is actually one of the most dissonent of musical keys. Mountararat goes on to say he gives the judgments andante six-eight time.

The sayings quoted or paraphrased for the sake of a rhyme are as follows.

Faint heart never won fair lady.
Every journey had an end.
Dark the dawn when day is nigh
While the sun shines make your hay
Where a will is, there's a way
Beard the lion in his lair
Nothing venture, nothing win
Blood is thick, but water's thin
In for a penny, in for a pound
It's Love that makes the world go round!

Equity draftsmen were were those who wrote the documents used in cases in the Court of Chancery

Lower class Willis pronounces inconvenience as inconwenience. It is sometimes printed that way in the text.

At this, the actors pulled out pins which had been holding their wings down allowing them to swing out.

Although Peri is really pronounce PEHR-ee, Gilbert here pronounced it PEER-ee.

When the Lords became fairies they must also have become ageless or the marriages would be doomed.

What happens to the House of Lords? Many changes suggested here have been accomplished by recent reforms.

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Revised January 2007
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