"IOLANTHE"

SSAOS 1930 production

• Written by W S Gilbert 
  

• The music of  Arthur S Sullivan
  

• SSAOS Production at Empire Theatre, South  Shields, 10th - 15th February, 1930

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.

  Principals

Earl Tolleller.................	Cyril Kirsop		Phyllis.........................	Doris Barrow
Lord Chancellor............	Alan Porteus		Iolanthe......................	Mary Carmichael
Earl Mountararat.........	Geo W Bainbridge		Queen of the Faries...	Elsie Pringle
Sentry............................	Harold Clunie		Celia...........................	Betty Legg
Stephon (an Arcadian			Leila............................	Ethel Thubron
Shepherd)......................	Alfred Jones		Fleta...........................	Nan Wright

Lord Chancellor - Alan Porteus   Stephon- Alfred Jones

	Queen of the Fairies-Elsie Pringle		Fairies
	Sentry-Harold Clunie		Fleta-Nan Wright
			Celia-Betty Legg            Leila-Ethel Thubron

See also the SSAOS 1922 production of "IOLANTHE"
1929-30 Officials of the Society President- Ald. John Taylor. J.P., O.B.E. Hon Secretary - Mr Ernest Evers L.M.C.M. Hon Treasurer - Mr E Hedley Committee Chairman - Mr F R Hanley, Vice-Chaiman - Mr M Coverdale Mr G W Bainbridge, Mr J Smith, Mr C Kirsop, Mr J Corbitt,  Miss D Runcieman, Miss E Pringle, Miss M Carmichael.
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