Gilbert & Sullivan

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When Michael Tilson Thomas programmed the San Francisco Symphony's semistaged production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe for June 18-21, little did he know how au courant it would be. As rehearsals begin on this great send-up of the English Parliament, the news from England is full of Parliamentary scandal and speculation on the fate of the government, while our government is working on "a new and original plan," like G&S's Lord Chancellor's, to govern honestly.

The U.S., in the throes of controversy over a Supreme Court appointment, may well come to long for the good old days of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist who, inspired by Iolanthe, added four golden stripes to his sleeves and quoted the Lord Chancellor in one of his opinions: "The Law is the true embodiment/Of everything that's excellent./It has no kind of fault or flaw/And I, My Lords, embody the Law."

Iolanthe is a fairy, who once married a mortal and had a son, was therefore banished from Fairydom but has now been pardoned. Her son, the shepherd Strephon, loves Phyllis, who is the ward of the Lord Chancellor and is beloved by him and the entire House of Lords. Strephon appeals to Iolanthe and the Fairy Queen to help him win Phyllis. As anyone can see, the plot will proceed to be exceedingly complicated. Somehow, by the end, Strephon and Phyllis will be united, and the peers of the realm, faced with opening the peerage to competitive examination, will abandon Parliament and fly off with the fairies.

Gilbert outdid himself on the libretto, and Sullivan wrote a masterful score, with echoes of Mendelssohn and Wagner. MTT was originally scheduled to conduct, but George Manahan, the musical director of New York City Opera, will take over for him. This production does not propose to undertake the kind of manic staging offered by our Lamplighters, but the Lamplighters were big enough to recommend, in their publicity earlier this year, that people take in both their performance and the Symphony's.