Where Fairyland meets the British stiff upper lip.
Gilbert & Sullivan’s well-loved tale of fairies, half-fairies, and love-besotted English noblemen, written at the midpoint of Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaboration, when both artists were at the peak of their creative powers. Sullivan’s captivating score, unmistakably influenced by both Mendelssohn and Wagner, contains some of his most accomplished and beautiful music. In the story of what happens when the entire British House of Lords comes into conflict with a band of fairies, Gilbert’s witty libretto skewers the privileges bestowed on a dim-witted, entitled ruling class and—of course—the eternal war of the sexes.