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Gilbert & Sullivan: Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri Great Operetta Recordings ADD CD 1 58:34 8.110231-32 1 Overture (Orchestra) 7:18 ACT 1: An Arcadian Landscape between 1700 and 1882 2 Chorus: Tripping hither, tripping thither (Chorus, Celia, Leila) 4:10 3 Invocation: Iolanthe! From thy dark exile (Queen, Celia, Leila, Iolanthe) 3:15 4 Song: Good morrow, good mother (Strephon, Chorus) 0:41 5 Ensemble: Fare thee well, attractive stranger (Queen, Fairies) 1:03 GILBERT AND 6 Song: Good morrow, good lover (Phyllis, Strephon) 0:42 7 Duet: None shall part us from each other (Phyllis, Strephon) 2:53 SULLIVAN 8 Chorus: Loudly let the trumpet bray! (Chorus) 5:43 9 Song: The Law is the true embodiment (Lord Chancellor & Chorus) 2:50 0 Recit: My well-loved lord (Phyllis); 4:05 Iolanthe Solo: Of all the young ladies I know (Lord Tolloller, Lord Mountararat, Phyllis, Chorus) ! Recit: Nay, tempt me not (Phyllis, Chorus); 5:09 Ballad: Spurn not the nobly born (Lord Tolloller, Phyllis, Lord Chancellor, Strephon, Ann Drummond-Grant Lord Tolloller, Chorus) @ Song: When I went to the bar (Lord Chancellor) 2:04 Martyn Green # Finale (Strephon, Phyllis, Lord Mountararat, Iolanthe, Lord Tolloller, Lord Chancellor, 18:41 Leonard Osborn Queen, Ensemble) Eric Thornton CD 2 29:36 ACT 2: Palace Yard, Westminster Fisher Morgan 1 Song: When all night long (Private Willis) 3:54 2 Chorus: Strephon’s a member of Parliament (Chorus of Fairies, Chorus of Peers) 1:28 Alan Styler 3 Song: When Britain really ruled the waves (Lord Mountararat, Chorus) 2:55 4 Duet: In vain to us you plead (Leila & Celia, Fairies) 1:56 Ella Halman 5 Song: Oh, foolish fay (Fairy Queen, Chorus) 2:59 6 Quartet: Though p’raps I may incur your blame (Lord Mountararat, Lord Tolloller, Phyllis, Private Willis) 1:52 The D’Oyly Carte Opera 7 Recit: Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest; Song: When you’re lying awake (Lord Chancellor) 3:37 Chorus and Orchestra 8 Trio: If you go in (Lord Mountararat, Lord Chancellor, Tolloller) 2:20 9 Duet: If we’re weak enough to tarry (Strephon, Phyllis) 1:28 Isidore Godfrey 0 Recit: My lord, a suppliant at your feet; Ballad: He loves! (Iolanthe) 2:14 ! It may not be (Lord Chancellor, Iolanthe, Queen, Chorus of Fairies) 2:48 (Recorded in London in 1951) @ Finale (Phyllis, Iolanthe, Queen, Lord Chancellor, Lord Mountararat, Lord Tolloller, Ensemble) 2:03 2 CDs 8.110231-32 8 110231-32 bk Iolanthe US 22/5/03 4:55 PM Page 2

William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) Iolanthe (or The Peer and the Peri)

“…Nothing, I thought, could have been happier and Fogerty’s Fairy (1881), Gilbert transferred the than the manner in which the comic strain of House of Lords to fairyland. The result, a new kind of the piece was blended with its harmonies of féerie opera made more atmospheric by the new sight and sound, so good in taste from innovation of electric light. Iolanthe was the first G&S beginning to end.” work to be staged in D’Oyly Carte’s newly-built Savoy Theatre, on 25th November 1882, under the composer’s Also available: (Gladstone’s letter to Sullivan, December 1882) baton) where it ran for 398 performances. Opened on the same night on Broadway under the conductor Alfred Cellier, over the years it enjoyed various successful Although a noted amateur of literary genius, the resurrections and would remain a favourite with New political satire in Iolanthe may have eluded Queen York audiences (notably in 1926 with 355 Victoria’s Prime Minister. After already parodying performances) as well as in Australia and other British holders of high office - the navy (in Pinafore and colonies. At Sadler’s Wells, in 1962, it was the first Pirates), the Aesthetic Movement (in Patience) and Savoy work to be awarded a large-scale London jurisprudence (in Trial By Jury)- in Gilbert’s ingenious production and in 1987 was the opera chosen to launch new libretto Sullivan had found another sure vehicle for the revamped D’Oyly Carte Opera Co. One of the most caricature of the British peerage, not least Captain musically integrated and fluent of the Savoy opera Shaw, the Chief of the London Fire Brigade. scores, in its use and development of recurring musical Continuing the popular ‘fairy’ genre he had already themes Iolanthe is, as Arthur Jacobs observed “…the exploited in such pre-Sullivan farces and burlesques as work in which Sullivan’s operetta style takes a definite The Palace of Truth (1870), The Happy Land (1873) step forward”.

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CD 2 Ward – but refused, again in his official capacity to Ann Drummond-Grant accept it. In a trio, their Lordships urge him to make Act 2 another application, which might prove successful 8 The wife of D’Oyly Carte conductor Isidore Godfrey and a stalwart in G&S contralto rôles, Ann Drummond Grant and all three dance out, arm in arm. Dispirited, Strephon (1904-1959) began her career as a soprano in opera, both amateur and professional, prior to joining the D’Oyly The scene is the Palace Yard, Westminster. On sentry enters and attempts to repair the rift with Phyllis. She Carte chorus in 1933. A member of the company for five years, during 1938 her rôles included Patience, The duty, Grenadier Guard Private Willis soliloquises on accepts that Iolanthe is his mother and the couple Plaintiff (in Trial By Jury), Josephine (in Pinafore), Aline (in The Sorcerer), Fiametta (in Gondoliers) and Elsie (in political polarity 1. The fairies, led by Celia, Leila and resolve to marry at once 9. Iolanthe enters and, giving Yeomen) and Celia and Phyllis in Iolanthe. Later, she branched into operetta (appearing notably in Waltzes From Fleta enter and sing jubilantly at Strephon’s election to them her blessing, reveals that Strephon’s father is none Vienna) and also sang in summer seasons but in 1950 she returned to D’Oyly Carte, where she assumed the leading Parliament, followed by the Peers, from Westminster other than the Lord Chancellor himself. Phyllis and contralto repertoire previously sung by Ella Halman. Hall, who are less than jubilant 2. Mountararat, Strephon take their leave and as the Lord Chancellor angered by Strephon’s introduction of a bill to subject enters, Iolanthe withdraws and shrouds her face in a the Peerage to greater scrutiny, pleads the case for the veil. In an aside to the audience, his Lordship announces Martyn Green House of Lords 3. Although impressed by the attire of that, as his further official application to himself has the Peers, and flattered by their attentions, Leila and been accepted, he is now engaged to Phyllis. Iolanthe Born William Martyn-Green in London, Martyn Green (1899-1975) studied singing first with his father, the Celia insist that their pomp will not influence Strephon comes forwards and pleads on behalf of Strephon 0, distinguished English tenor William Green, and later with Gustave García (1837-1925) at the Royal College of 4. The Peers depart and the Queen of the Fairies enters. but the Lord Chancellor insists that he is himself Music. After active service during the First World War, he gained his first stage experience in 1919, in musical She chides the fairies for admiring them, although she engaged to Phyllis until he discovers that Iolanthe is his comedy on Daly’s Theatre circuit. Green joined the D’Oyly Carte as a chorister and understudy in 1922 and his solo admits she is herself attracted by Private Willis (whom wife. The Queen of the Fairies enters, ordering début, as Luiz in Gondoliers, was followed by other comic leads including John Wellington Wells (in The she apostrophizes as ‘Captain Shaw’) 5. She departs Iolanthe’s death for breaking fairy laws, but the other Sorcerer), Major Murgatroyd (in Patience), the Major-General (in Pirates), The Associate (in Trial By Jury) and with her retinue and Phyllis enters, dejected despite the fairies protest that in that case they all must die, for they The Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. His masterly portrayal of Ko-Ko The Lord High Executioner in The Mikado is fact that she is currently simultaneously “engaged” to too have married into the Peerage. At this the Lord preserved in the 1939 Technicolor screen adaptation by Geoffrey Toye and in the 1950 Decca studio recording the Lords Mountararat and Tolloller, who now arrive to Chancellor suggests, in a stroke of genius, that the law (Naxos 8.110176-77). After service in the RAF during the Second World War, he returned in 1946 to D’Oyly Carte assert their claims to her hand. To settle the matter a be changed to read: ‘Every fairy shall die who doesn’t to sing comic leads until 1951. Thereafter, he toured the United States, performing and directing as well as lecturing duel is suggested but is soon overruled by the ties of marry a mortal.’ To this the Queen consents and takes on the Savoy Operas. Martyn Green appeared on American TV (his was the voice of the fox in the cartoon friendship. Willis joins them in a quartet 6. As they the hand of Private Willis, who is instantly Pinocchio) and on Broadway as Chaucer in the Richard Hill-John Hawkins musical Canterbury Tales. He died in exit, the downhearted Lord Chancellor enters and sings transmogrified –into a fairy !. Not wishing to be left Hollywood, California. of the unrequited love which robs him of his rest and out Mountararat and Tolloller follow suit and as wings gives him nightmares 7. Exhausted, he slumps into a sprout from their shoulders the Peers all join with the chair. Mountararat and Tolloller return and the Lord fairies in a joyful chorus @. Leonard Osborn Chancellor tells them of how he made his own application, via his own official office, to marry his own Peter Dempsey At first an amateur singer in his native London, Leonard Osborn worked as a chemist in a silk-printing mill before joining the professional chorus of D’Oyly Carte in the mid-1930s. After his début in a small part in Yeomen in 1937, he had by 1939 sung the defendant (in Trial By Jury), Francesco (in Gondoliers) and Leonard Merrill (in Yeomen). An RAF flight-lieutenant during the second World War, in 1946 Osborn returned to D’Oyly Carte where, until his retirement in 1959, his many rôles included the Duke of Dunstable (in Patience), Fairfax (in Yeomen), Ralph (in Pinafore), Frederick (in Pirates), Marco in Gondoliers and Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe.

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Eric Thornton Synopsis bearer and laments the disadvantages of fostering Wards-in-Chancery 9. The Peers are eager to know Eric Thornton joined D’Oyly Carte in 1950. During his first season with the company he played Bouncer (in Cox CD 1 which of them shall marry Phyllis, but the question is And Box), the Learned Judge (in Trial By Jury), Captain Corcoran (in Pinafore), Luiz (in Gondoliers) and Lord further complicated by the Lord Chancellor’s Mountararat in Iolanthe. The following year he sang the Pirate King and Sir Roderic (in Ruddigore) and from 1952 Act 1 confession that he too is smitten by her. Phyllis herself onwards worked with touring G&S companies in Australia. is summoned to appear before them 0. The Lords After the Overture 1 the curtain rises on an idyllic Tolloller and Mountararat variously pay her homage, Arcadian setting. The fairies, led by Leila, Celia and but Phyllis, to their horror, informs them of her Fisher Morgan Fleta, sing as they dance about the rustic bridge that betrothal to Strephon ! who now strives to persuade crosses the stream 2. They recount how, 25 years the Lord Chancellor that his own love for Phyllis is due Fisher Morgan joined D’Oyly Carte in 1950 and remained a member of the company until 1956. His rôles included previously, Iolanthe was banished by the Fairy Queen to to overwhelming forces of Nature. The Lord Bouncer (in Cox And Box), the Learned Judge (in Trial By Jury), the Sergeant (in Pirates), Don Alhambra (in the bed of the stream for having married a mortal. The Chancellor, still unimpressed of the shepherd’s Gondoliers), Pooh-Bah (in Mikado), King Hildebrand (in Princess Ida), Sir Despard (in Ruddigore) and Private Fairy Queen now enters and, yielding to the Fairies’ eligibility, vents his doubts in a song @ then departs. Willis in Iolanthe. Fisher Morgan died in January 1959. intercession, pardons Iolanthe and crowns her once Iolanthe enters and Strephon tells her of the Lord more a fairy 3. Iolanthe reveals that she has a son, Chancellor’s opposition to his marriage to Phyllis. Strephon, a shepherd in love with Phyllis, a pretty Comforting him, Iolanthe vows to bring their case to the Alan Styler shepherdess and a Ward-in-Chancery of the Lord Fairy Queen herself. In the meantime the Peers have Chancellor. At this, Strephon waltzes in, playing his returned with Phyllis who, seeing Strephon in Iolanthe’s Alan Styler was born in Redditch in Worcestershire. A keen semi-professional baritone in his youth, at seventeen flageolet (here, the oft-repeated ‘Good Morrow’ theme embrace, and not knowing she is his mother, mistakenly he was a Grenadier Guard and served in the British Army during the Second World War. In 1947 he joined the first appears) 4. He informs the Queen of the Lord suspects him of infidelity. Phyllis confronts Strephon D’Oyly Carte where, until his retirement in 1968, he sang a variety of principal rôles, including Captain Corcoran Chancellor’s refusal to permit him to marry Phyllis, and a general confusion ensues – the Peers do not see (in Pinafore), Samuel (in Pirates), the Lieutenant (in Yeomen) and Strephon in Iolanthe. adding that they intend to marry regardless. He ‘How so young a girl as Iolanthe could be the mother of complains that being a half-fairy does not really suit a man of five-and-twenty!’ Strephon pleads his case but him and, taking his leave, confesses that while his brain an unconvinced Phyllis, simultaneously addressing Ella Halman is a fairy brain, from the waist downwards he is ‘a Mountararat and Tolloller, vows to marry one of the gibbering idiot’, which, the Queen suggests, might Peers instead. Strephon reappears and summons the After joining the D’Oyly Carte Chorus in 1937, Ella Halman remained with the company until 1951, singing a qualify him for membership of Parliament! 5. Phyllis fairies to help him. The Queen vainly attempts to variety of rôles, including Lady Jane (in Patience), Katisha (in Mikado), Ruth (in Pirates), the Duchess (in makes her entrance; dancing to the accompaniment of reassure the Peers that Iolanthe is Strephon’s mother, Gondoliers) and the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe. her flageolet, she greets Strephon on what she hopes not his lover. As a punishment she decrees that will be their wedding day – several of the Peers are also Strephon shall shed his pastoral status and enter ‘the hopeful of her hand 6. The couple swear eternal Parliamentary hive’ where he will have power to pass Margaret Mitchell allegiance and depart together 7. Amid pomp and whatever bills he pleases. Genuflecting, the Peers beg ceremony the Peers enter, accompanied by the Band of for mercy, as the fairies threaten them with their wands Margaret Mitchell joined the D’Oyly Carte chorus in 1943 and played her first principal rôle, the fairy Fleta in Guards 8. The Lord Chancellor enters with his train- #. Iolanthe the following year. Her G&S repertoire included Patience, Edith (in Pirates), Ella (in Patience), Yum- Yum (in Mikado), Kate (in Yeomen), Casilda (in Gondoliers), Rose Maybud (in Ruddigore) and Phyllis in Iolanthe.

Peter Dempsey

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Peter Dempsey

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William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) Iolanthe (or The Peer and the Peri)

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8.110231-32 ADD AXOS Historical GILBERT and SULLIVAN Playing

h broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. public Unauthorised performance, translations reserved. texts and in this sound recording, artwork, All rights Time

& Iolanthe

g 1:28:10 8.110231-32 03HHItrainlLd • Made in E.C. Ltd. 2003 HNH International After already parodying Iolanthe ...... Ann Drummond-Grant holders of high office in The Lord Chancellor ...... Martyn Green Pinafore, Patience and Trial Earl Tolloller ...... Leonard Osborn by Jury, in Iolanthe Gilbert caricatures the British Earl of Mountararat ...... Eric Thornton GILBERT & SULLIVAN: peerage, transferring the Private Willis ...... Fisher Morgan Iolanthe House of Lords to fairyland. Strephon ...... Alan Styler The result was a new kind of Queen of the Fairies ...... Ella Halman féerie opera made more Celia ...... Joyce Hill atmospheric by the use of Leila ...... Yvonne Dean electric light. Iolanthe was the first G&S work to be Phyllis ...... Margaret Mitchell staged in the newly-built Recorded 1951, London Savoy Theatre in 1882, and is one of the most musically Decca LK 4044/5, London LLP 469/70, mx ARL 959/62 integrated and fluent of the The D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus and Orchestra Savoy opera scores in its use Iolanthe

GILBERT & SULLIVAN: GILBERT conducted by Isidore Godfrey and development of recurring musical themes. CD 1 58:34 CD 2 29:36 MADE IN 1 Overture 7:18 1-@ Act II 29:36 CANADA 2-# Act I 51:16 www.naxos.com 8.110231-32

Archivist & Restoration Producer: David Lennick Digital Noise Reduction: Graham Newton A complete track list can be found in the booklet AXOS Historical Cover Picture from a Private Collection N