Gilbert & Sullivan - IOLANTHE - Act I finale (Sir Malcolm Sargent, 1958)

IOLANTHE (or The Peer and the Peri)
Librettist: Sir William Schwenk (W.S.) Gilbert
Composer: Sir Arthur Sullivan
First performance: Savoy Theatre, London, 25 November 1882
“Iolanthe”, Gilbert and Sullivan’s seventh collaboration, satirizes the British legal and political systems and the House of Lords (who, not noted for intellectual eminence or scholarship sublime, did nothing in particular, and did it very well). And, in typical G&S fashion, they do it by opening the opera in an Arcadian landscape full of peris (good and beautiful fairies in Persian mythology).
Iolanthe is a fairy who was punished for falling in love with a mortal. Her son, the shepherd Strephon, is half-fairy (from the waist up). His mortal half loves Phyllis, a ward in chancery - with whom the Lord Chancellor and all the peers have fallen in love. The Lord Chancellor will not let Strephon marry Phyllis, and so in desperation he talks to his mother. Being a fairy, she is immortal, and looks like a maid of seventeen - leading Phyllis and the peers to think that she is not his mother at all. Phyllis dumps Strephon and announces that she will marry a peer - she doesn’t care who, so long as he’s rich. Strephon calls on the Fairy Queen for help, and she sends Strephon into parliament; henceforward, all of his wishes will come true. In the end, the peers and the peris marry - for everyone is now a fairy.
No. 13 - Finale Act I
• “When darkly looms the day”
• “The lady of my love has caught me talking to another”
• “Go away, madam”
• “Henceforth Strephon, cast away”
• “With Strephon for your foe, no doubt / Young Strephon is the kind of lout”
Lord Chancellor: George Baker
Earl of Mountararat: Ian Wallace
Earl Tolloller: Alexander Young
Private Willis: Owen Brannigan
Strephon: John Cameron
Queen of the Fairies: Monica Sinclair
Iolanthe: Marjorie Thomas
Celia: April Cantelo
Leila: Heather Harper
Phyllis: Elise Morison
Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
Pro Arte Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
Glyndebourne, 1958
Artist: W. Russell Flint (www.gilbertandsullivanarchive....)

[@michsturge671]

This set is musically still the best. Great singing and conducting with excellent tempos.

[@alfichman8742]

Very helpful for learning the parts...thank you!

[@vincer9092]

Thank you for posting these!

[@michaeloneill9230]

Love this one!

[@jatiel39]

6:24 Phyllis : For riches and rank I do not long

[@Corinthian44]

Finale too slow !

[@iflashman9422]

9:15

[@anthonyhenrysmith]

Elsie Morison not Elise

[@iflashman9422]

11:56

[@tonyhurst5615]

All too slow!

[@alexandrumanta1439]

This conductor was famous for his slow tempi. It takes the fun out of everything, this is G&S not Wagner.

[@seancollins292]

@@alexandrumanta1439

[@seancollins292]

@@alexandrumanta1439 It isnt that Malcolm Sargent is too slow, but that Isidore Godfrey is delightfully brisk, and he brought a delightful zest into the G&S as we know it (for the better) . But Sargent did his research well, examining the original manuscripts. His Mikado and Princess Ida, and Yeomen are still standard canon. Isidore did marvels for the repertory , no doubt.

[@iflashman9422]

10:17