"IOLANTHE."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 11628, 1 November 1887, Page 2

"lOLANTHE."

4 _. The opera of " lolanthp," which is to be produced in Wanganui on the Prince of Wales' Birthday, is conceived in the same style of refiaed humour which gives their greatest charm to all the works resulting from the united efforts of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan. Full of life and fun, abounding in quaint verbiage, and ludicrous situations, " lolanthe," like its fellows, never descends into the vulgar comic ; and it is unnecessary to say that it contains not a word at which the most fastidious ear could take offence. The music, like all of Sullivan's compositions,ia not merely pretty and taking, but is good, from the musician's point of view. We shall refer to that, howaver, on a future occasion, meanwhile giving a sketch of the plot of the opera. The scene of the first act is Arcadia — of course in the anoient mythological times, when faiiias were not so uncommon as they are now-a-days. A bevy of fairies dance in and trip around the fairy-ring, after which they fall to discoursing on the great loss fairy society has incurred through the banishment of loJaathe— a very popular fairy who has been banished because she has been so injui dicioua as to marry a mortal, which ia a sin punishable by lairy laud with death. lolanrhe's puuiahmenfc has, however, been commuted to penal saicvitu.de for

life, and this sentence she is working out at tha bottom of a stream, which runs aoroas the stage. The fairies are much f puzzled to account (or her choice of so damp a place of abode, in spite of her chest haying Been always delicate. They petition their queen to pardon her, and the queen partly through aflection and partly through curiosity, agreed to do so. lolanthe is therefore invoked from her damp abode, and rises from the water covered with weeds and slime. On the queemdeolaring her pardon, she immediately re*asßUines her appearance as a fairy, and in answer to the eager questions of the queen, saya that her reason for her living at the bottom of the stream was to be near the son of Strephon, who it appears is now twentyr-four years of age, and extremely pretty, but rather inolined to be Btout. Strephon enters, and is introduced to his fairy relatives. It seems that Strophon is much inconvenienced by being only half a fairy, only his upper part being immortal. He is engaged to an Arcadian shepherdess named Phyllis, but she is a Ward in Chancery, and the Lord Chancellor has refused his consent to their being united. The queen having, however; promised that she will assist him, and that his legs shall be the peculiar care of the fairies, they depart, and Phyllis enters. Strephon is somewhat jealous of the Houbo of Lords, of whom twenty-five Liberal peers and twenty»*five Conservative peers are attached to Phyllis. He therefore persuades her to marry him at once, and they dance off together: Then enterß a prooession of noblemen who have met to arrange which of them shall marry the much-coveted Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor having promised to give her to which ever of them sbe shall think proper to S3lect, Phyllis is summoned to the bar of the House, where the oreates a great sensation among the ' Lords. They all cast their coronets at • her feet, but she refuses them all, declaring that her heart is already given. The Lord Chancellor, who is as strongly affeotsd by the young person as all the other peers, demands who has darod to thus disobey the Court of Chancey. Htrephon bursts into the oonclave, and ; Phyllis rushes into his arms. The peers ; march off, dignified and stately, and J the Lord Chancellor separates Strephon . from Phyllis, and orders her away, aud after givingStrephon a piece of his miad, goes off too. lolanthe enters, and endeavours to comfort her son, when Phyllis and the peers returning, and ■ . half over-hearing them, suppose the , two to bo making love, for lolanthe being an immortal appears to be only , about seventeen years old. A scene of ; recrimination ensues, and Strophon is rejected by Phyllis, and unmercifully chaffed by -the peers when he tries to convince them that the lady is his , mother. Strephon then invokes; the , aid a'f the fairies who enter and surround him. He relates to them his trouble, , and the Fairy Queen tells the peers that they've done him an injustice for , the lady is his mother, which statement they continue to scornfully reject, as they cannot be made to believe that a maid of seventeen is tha mother of a man of four and twenty. They suppose the queen and her fairy troop to be a ladies' seminary, and the Lord Chancellor orders her to go away with her { brazen-faced brood. Then the queen, , to the horror of the peers, reveals their | fairyhood, and a terrifio row ensues I between the parties, which ends in the ( fairieß getting the best of it, and , the peers suing for peao'e, In { che second abfc, the scene .i&rloitf in |. Palace Yard, Westminster, during the , session of -.Parliament. The sentry oh , duty, sings a meditative song about , political matters ; and the fairies, who , have transplanted themselves from (say) 1000 B.C. to the present day; dance in, . rejoicing that Strephon's a member of Parliament, and is oarrying everything before him. The peers enter from Wastminster Hall, grieving over the same fact ; but a revulsion of feeling has come over the fairies, and they have taken to greatly admiring the peers, who, .however, w"JI not reciprocate, and who go off in a huff. The Fairy Queen enters, and finds the faries gazing wist* fully after the peers, for which ohe , abuses them roundly, admitting, howi ever, that it ia only a sense of duty that i prevents her giving way to her own : appreciation of manly beauty, and.ind.Ueating the sentry as her ideal. Qaotin and fairies all go off sorrowfully, and 5 Phyllis enters, attended by the two ; • earls, to whom ahe is now engaged. t She says she cannot decide between ; them as they are (as she tells them) : ■ " both earls, both rich, and both plain." They hold a lovine .^argument, eaoh . offoring to give her up rather than die« . oblige the other ; and fiaally they go , off together in one direction while Phyllis goes off in the other. The Lord ; Chancellor enters, much depressed • through his unrequited love, and is comforted by the two earls, who raise , his spirits, and their own to such an r extent that they all go off dancing. Phyllis and Strophon meet, and she • learns of bis fairyhood, and so under- , stand 3 bis mother's appearing younger ■ than himself. lolanthe joins thorn, and b they entreat her to beg the Lord Chancellor to consent to their marriage. She i hesitates, and at last tells them that it ■ is impossible, as the Lord Chancellor is - her husband and Strephon's father ; and her sentence of death would be enforced ; by the Queen were she to reveal her • continued existence to her husband, who t had thought her dead for twenty-five years. But love for her son eompela i her to sacrifice herself for him, and she goes to the Lord Ohancellor, and find- ■ ing all other persuasions fail, tells him 1 she is his wife. The Fairy Queen and her troop enter, and the Queen is about » to put lolanthe to death, when the ' fairies oonfess that they are all aa bad • as lolantha, for they havo all married peers, and are now " fairy duohesses, • marchionesses, countesses, visoountesses. - » and baronesses." The Lord Chancellor I suggests that the insertion of the one word " not " in the fairy law would get over the difficulty, The Queen therefore alters the act to read " every fairy shall die who does ' not ' marry a i mortal." She then asks the sentry • whether ho is willing to save her life by » marrying her, and ie assured by that > gallant soldier that he is quite "willing i to ill- convenience hisself to save a i female in distress." The ssntry and the i Queen, the Lord '"•hancellor and lolanthe, Strepbon and Phyllis, peers and ' fairies then all pair off and fiy away to fairyland.