One of Gilbert's early Bab Ballads was The Fairy Curate which begins:

Once a fairy    Light and airy Married with a mortal;    Men, however,    Never, never Pass the fairy portal.    Slyly stealing,    She to Ealing Made a daily journey;    There she found him,    Clients round him (he was an attorney).

Long they tarried,    Then they married. When the ceremony    Once was ended,    Off they wended On their moon of honey.    Twelvemonth, maybe,    Saw a baby (Friends performed an orgie).    Much they prized him,    And baptized him By the name of GEORGIE.

Original Gilbert sketch

The boy grows up to be a clergyman in the Church of England. The Bishop found him together with his mother but she looked so young he didn't believe she could be Georgie's parent. This upset Georgie so much he became a Mormon! Another source was Gilbert's The Periwinkle Girl in which a girl who sold periwinkles (an edible sea snail) was wooed by young and old, including two Dukes. However, the Dukes did not want to marry her so she settled for a mere Earl!. There is also a story in The Arabian Nights about a prince who marries as peri which Gilbert probably knew.

Here were the inspirations for Iolanthe. In October 1881, Gilbert took the idea to Sullivan who said it was ‘funny but vague'. As was his practice, Gilbert put the idea aside for a while before creating a first version of the story in which the fairies marry lawyers. On further thought, the anachronism that was the House of Lords at the time, when noble birth was the only qualification for membership, was a better target for his wit; he thought it as unreal as Fairyland!

Gilbert worked on the libretto during the spring and summer of 1882, and Sullivan started the music in June, soon after the death of his mother. (When rehearsals started for Act II in September, Sullivan was still working on his parts for Act I.) There was a great deal of secrecy during the rehearsal period because there had been so many leaks for earlier productions. So that no word would leak out early, all the parts were locked up at night, and the New York cast was completely rehearsed in London before sailing for America. Yet somehow one critic did manage to get hold of the story and publish it in his newspaper.

Iolanthe opened just three nights after the close of Patience, and the two casts overlapped to a large extent*. There were continual changes so it was a very strenuous time for all concerned. Gilbert admonished the peers to "wear your coronets as if you were used to them" and insisted they shave their whiskers. (According to some versions of this story the mustaches were spared, but in other versions they were not.) George Grossmith, the first Lord Chancellor, tells how one man refused to shave and was fired. "The mustache stayed on but he did not."

During the six-week rehearsal period, the opera was known as Perola rather that Iolanthe. There are several versions of why this was done. Secrecy was certainly a factor, but also Iolanthe was already the name of a Danish drama, and there was an English translation of it by W.G. Wills in which Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were starring. The D'Oyly Carte company was waiting for their permission to use the final title. One often repeated story is that the opera continued to be known as Perola until after the final dress rehearsal. At that time the cast members were informed they were to substitute the name Iolanthe everywhere during the opening. They were upset, fearing they would make mistakes, but Sullivan told them to use any name that came to them and to do their best; Gilbert wouldn't be there to hear any mistakes — he would be taking his usual walk along the Embankment all during the performance. It is a good story, but probably only partly true. Gilbert's prompt book used the word Iolanthe during the whole rehearsal period, and advertisements for the new opera had been using the title Iolanthe for almost two weeks. The singers certainly knew this. Furthermore, the name is sung numerous times and the music fits Iolanthe but not Perola.

Every effort was made to have everything well known to the British as accurate as possible. The Peers' robes were made by Ede and Sons, robe-makers to the Queen and great trouble was taken with the Act II set depicting the Palace of Westminster. Gilbert also insisted the moon in Act II be blue-white and not yellow, causing problems for the electrician.

Just before Sullivan left home on opening night, he received word from his broker that he had lost all his savings, not a good omen as he started to conduct. Nevertheless the opera was a great success and the next day he learned he would get his money back. The electric lights performed well and allowed stage effects not previously seen. Another innovation was a printed libretto which the audience could buy and, since the lights couldn't be dimmed completely, read and follow every word during the performance. Many kept their eyes glued to the pages, and there was a great rustling noise whenever these were turned. Yet, understanding all the words, the audience laughed as never before.

Five hours later Iolanthe opened in New York, the first play ever to open on the same day on both sides of the ocean. There was a different overture. Sullivan was so late in writing his that, in the days before airplanes, there was no way to get it to America in time. He cabled Alfred Cellier to please provide his own. Because of the time change, news of the London success reached New York even before its own performance opened.

Iolanthe was very successful with the audiences and with some critics. One review noted: "Every coronet was correct as to its spikes, balls and strawberry leaves (i.e. the coronets for the various ranks of Peers" and the scene at Westminster was admired for its fidelity. Another critic said the Peers' procession had "the most gorgeous beings that ever trod the boards of the Savoy or any other theatre". Gilbert had even borrowed the band of the Grenadier Guards to lead the procession. There was some criticism for the ridiculing of the House of Lords, but much of the humor reflects discussions already going on in political circles. (Some of Prime Minister Gladstone's Liberals wanted the House of Lords abolished saying it was a private club for rank and privilege.) There was the suggestion that the Fairy Queen represented Victoria, Private Willis her gillie John Brown (her Scottish gamekeeper), the Lord Chancellor was Prime Minister Gladstone, and Strephon was Lord Randolph Churchill (the father of Winston). Gilbert was probably not that specific.

Real peers wear their crowns only for special occasions such coronation of a monarch, not in everyday life as depicted in the opera. Gilbert worried Americans would think they did. Years later, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and Gilbert and Sullivan lover, William H. Rehnquist, was so impressed by the gown worn by the Lord Chancellor in a performance he attended that he added four gold stripes to the robe he wore in court. The present Chief Justice has not continued the practice.

The first run in London was for 398 performances. Prime Minister Gladstone loved it and five months later gave Sullivan a knighthood. Then it was not revived in London until 1902. However, it played in many other places. Except for a few years Iolanthe was given in the provinces every season until 1982, and it was the first Gilbert and Sullivan work produced by the Sadlers Wells Opera when the D'Oyly Carte copyright on the words expired.

* Most of the members of The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company stayed together for years and had roles in play after play. The following table shows the overlap of the opening night casts for Patience (1881) and Iolanthe (1882). It also shows the casts for the 1878 H.M.S. Pinafore, the 1880 The Pirates of Penzance, and the 1885 The Mikado. Opening night casts are in black. Red shows participation in later casts.

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Revised January 2007
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