This production enables students from universities to take part and be at the heart of what is the most exciting Gilbert and Sullivan programme anywhere in the world. Directed by Festival Chairman, Ian Smith, this will be a traditional production of one the most popular G&S operas.
Iolanthe is a charming operetta about a fairy banished from Fairyland for life for marrying a mortal. Gilbert’s incisive witty political satire is as relevant today as it was when Iolanthe was first performed in 1882 and many consider the Iolanthe music among the best of Sullivan’s work. In this "fairy opera", the House of Lords is lampooned as a bastion of the ineffective, privileged and dim-witted. The political party system and other institutions also come in for a dose of satire.