Iolanthe

Gilbert & Sullivan

National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company

Buxton Opera House

August 3-September 16, 2025: 2 hrs 30 mins

(also on August 10, 13 and 16; and September 5 at the Festival Theatre, Malvern).

Grace O'Malley as Celia and members of the chorus in Iolanthe at Buxton Opera House. All pics: Charles Smith

There’s a unique characteristic of the audiences at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival that I can only describe as hyper-energetic hyper-enthusiasm. They know all the stories, they know all the jokes, they know all the songs – many of them are amateur performers themselves - and they love seeing the professionals do them proud.

John Savournin’s production of Iolanthe – the first NGSOC one since 2022, if I’m not mistaken – brought out all that enthusiasm, and with good reason. It’s one of the G&S canon that’s irredeemably Victorian and shouldn’t really be messed with, and he doesn’t.

The story is as daft as they come: all about Strephon, whose mother is a fairy (and therefore never ages) being in love with Phyllis, a ward in chancery, so there’s a female chorus of fairies and a male one of members of the House of Lords: the Lord Chancellor is just one of the whole lot of “blue-bloods” who fancy her.

There’s the opportunity for a spot of the old-fashioned adulation of obsolete British tradition that we similarly enjoy at the Last Night of the Proms (in the “patriotic” chorus When Britain really ruled the waves, which was splendidly done), and Sullivan wrote one of his best-ever tunes for this show, O foolish fay... despite its reference to the now generally forgotten London Fire Brigade Chief Officer, Captain Shaw.

Blair Anderson’s choreography is lively and gives the 16-strong chorus (several of them with RNCM credentials) and the principals plenty to do, with some comforting allusions to the old D’Oyly Carte traditions; conductor James Hendry’s tempi are well chosen for most numbers (though perhaps became a trifle too unvariably fast for the notorious Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare patter song) and the National Festival Orchestra plays with colour and contrast, and the setting and costuming is completely in Victorian mode.

I liked the regional accents for the leading fairies, sung by Grace O’Malley (Celia), Hannah Bennett (Leila) and Cara Blaikie (Fleta); in fact they and their feisty colleagues are pretty scary characters all round.

The principals include some well-established names in this genre, whose diction is impeccable (a virtue that doesn’t always appear with less-experienced performers). Gaynor Keeble is magnificent as the Queen of the Fairies; Simon Butteriss as engaging as ever as the Lord Chancellor, and Bruce Graham – marking 63 years of his appearances in Gilbert & Sullivan – won ecstatic cheers for his cameo as Private Willis, the intellectual of the Grenadier Guards. He can still put a song over better than almost anyone.

Kelli-Ann Masterson is delightful as Phyllis, and Felix Kemp brings both a very sweet lyric tenor to Strephon and a willingness to blend it considerately with her dainty soprano. James Cleverton (known to both the G&S and Buxton International Festival audiences) and Adam Sullivan have strong operatic voice qualities to bring to Earls Mountararat and Tolloller.

The role of Iolanthe herself – Phyllis’s mother – is that rare thing in G&S, a major role for a younger mezzo: she is beautifully sung by NGSOC favourite Meriel Cunningham, with all her familiar richness of tone.

More info and tickets here