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‘Iolanthe’ Comes to East Hampton
Mortals and immortals come face to face in the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island’s 2024 production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s classic Iolanthe, coming to the East Hampton Library on Saturday, May 4, at 2 p.m.
Iolanthe—which debuted in 1883, with book and lyrics by W.S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan—is one of the most beloved of all the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, especially for its perfect balance of words and music, humor and drama, magic and political satire. The current production is the Light Opera Company’s first since 2015.
The story is a whimsical one, involving a shepherd lad named Strephon, who has the unusual problem of being half fairy and half mortal … his mother was a fairy, his unknown father a mortal, and he’s a fairy down to the waist, though his legs are mortal. When Strephon falls in love with Phyllis, a wealthy heiress who is a ward in chancery and sought after in marriage by half the House of Lords, it sets up a conflict between the wily Lord Chancellor and the cosmically powerful Fairy Queen, with the Queen’s band of fairies, the lovestruck Peers and Strephon and Phyllis themselves caught in between.
The dramatic side of the story involves Strephon’s mother, Iolanthe, who was sentenced to death for marrying a mortal, then reprieved at the last moment and banished from the fairy world. Her greatest concern is for her son, and when the Lord Chancellor himself falls in love with Phyllis, Iolanthe faces a dilemma that may spell the end of her immortal life.
In the new production of the opera, Kara Vertucci of Lindenhurst plays Phyllis and Henry Horstmann of Lindenhurst plays Strephon, with Traci Weisberg Gang of Rego Park playing Iolanthe. Chris Jurak of Brightwaters is the Lord Chancellor, with Kenneth L. Kopolovicz of East Islip and Richard Risi of Locust Valley playing, respectively, Lord Mountararat and Lord Tolloller. Ben Salers of Northport plays Private Willis, with Delaney R. Page as the Fairy Queen. Farah Chandu of Oakland Gardens plays Leila, Rebecca Rutkovsky of Manhasset play Celia and Hanna Roth of Upper Brookville plays Fleta. The director is Gayden Wren, and the music directors are Isabella Eredita Johnson and David Bernard.
“Iolanthe is everything at once,” said Wren, a longtime member of the company and also the author of an acclaimed book about Gilbert & Sullivan. “It’s a goofy slapstick comedy, a whimsical fantasy, a political satire and a drama of Shakespearean proportions, and it swings from one to another so gracefully that it seems perfectly natural.”
The score for Iolanthe is arguably Sullivan’s greatest, ranging from the jaw-breaking patter of the Lord Chancellor’s famous “Nightmare Song” to the romantic duet “None Shall Part Us," from the swaggering "March of the Peers" to the keen-edged “When Britain Really Ruled the Waves,” offering literally something for everyone.
“It’s really Gilbert & Sullivan at their best,” concluded Wren, who admitted that it’s his personal favorite of the operas. “The real magic isn’t the invisible fairies or the hypnotic spell they cast, it’s Gilbert, Sullivan and the way that they seem to come together so closely that it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other leaves off. It’s one of the greatest works of musical theater ever written.”
Iolanthe will be presented on Saturday, May 4, at 2 p.m. at the East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street in East Hampton. Admission is free. For further information, call (631) 324-0222 or visit www.easthamptonlibrary.org.
