"IOLANTHE"

SSAOS 1922 production

Notes from the SSAOS 1930 programme :
 It may seem strange to the present generation that "IOLANTHE" found only a qualified success on production: and the composer, Mr Sullivan, as he was then, suffered an added disappointment thereabouts in the shape of a financial blow through the failure of a bank, which dispersed his savings.

For an appreciable period "IOLANTHE" was not included in the d'Oyly Carte repertoire, and it says much for the vitality of the opera that some forty-eight years after its inception it appears to be supplanting even "THE YEOMAN OF THE GUARD" in the popular favour.

The tale goes that at one of the band practices, when everything was in train for the dress rehearsal, the leader of the orchestra enquired about the overture, which they had not seen. Mr Sullivan hesitated for a moment, and remarked that that he would bring it the following day. At the hour appointed he failed to put in an appearance. An hour passed, two hours and yet a third. Eventually he arrived, a weary figure with a bundle of manuscripts under his arm - the missing overture, the whole of which he had written in one night. By all ordinary standards, it should have smacked of a 'pot-boiler' but the astounding  thing is that it is almost the finest overture he has composed.

Cast

Principals:
    

 Mr James Patton, Mr A Young, Mr David Ditchburn, Mr Robert F Harbottle, Mr Geo. Bainbridge, Miss Doris Barrow, Miss Mary Carmichael, Miss Dora Robson, Miss Mabel Lawson, Miss M Carling, Miss E Earl

Hon Accompanist : Mrs J Russell Smith
Hon Deputy Accompanist : Miss D Runcieman

Stage Manager and Produce :

Conductor :

Mr Gerald K Veitch

R H Carling
 

Lord Chancellor -
Mr Andrew Young

 

 

Stephon-
Mr Geo. W Bainbridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phyllis - Miss Doris Barrow

Iolanthe- Miss Mary Carmichael

See also the SSAOS 1930 production of "IOLANTHE" 


1921-22 Officials of the Society
President- Ald. J W Henderson J P

Hon Secretary - Mr Ernest Evers
Hon Treasurer - Mr Robert Harbottle

Committee
Chairman Mr J C Whiteley
Messrs. M Coverdale, D Ditchburn, J Mitchell, J Smith, A Young
Misses M Carmichael, G Jones, D Runcieman, Mrs E Evers 
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