This whimsical story of Parliament, where Peers and fairies are locked in legislative combat, provided Gilbert a perfect canvas on which to draw his topsy turvy world and allowed Sullivan to write some of his most subtle and sublime music. Iolanthe is banished for marrying a mortal and having his son, but when the young man wishes to marry, his fairy queen storms Wesminster to make him a Member of Parliament so he can win the girl with chaotic consequences! With memorable hits such as the Lord Chancellor and his ‘Nightmare Song’, the Wagnerian ‘Queen of the Fairies’ and a chorus of fairies and members of the House of Lords, this is one of the sharpest and most cutting of the Savoy operas.

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