In the beginning--25 years before the opera starts--the fairy Iolanthe married a mortal, a capital crime under fairy law. However, the Fairy Queen commuted Iolanthe's death sentence into banishment for life, provided she leave her husband without explanation and never see him again. Iolanthe's son Strephon (half fairy and half mortal) has grown up as a shepherd and fallen in love with Phyllis, a shepherdess and ward in chancery. She returns his love and is unaware of his unusual genetic heritage.

Our curtain rises to find the Fairies pleading with their Queen to recall Iolanthe from exile. The Queen does, and Strephon joins the glad reunion, telling of his intention to marry Phyllis despite her guardian's opposition. In token of her approval, the Queen plans to influence voters to elect Strephon to Parliament.

Love for Phyllis has also captured the hearts of the entire House of Lords, and they appeal to the Lord Chancellor to give her to whichever peer she may select. Even the Lord Chancellor is smitten but, as Phyllis' guardian, he is wary of conflict of interest. Phyllis rejects the Peers and tells the Lord Chancellor of her love for Strephon, who attempts to plead his case again, but in vain.

Abject after his failure, Strephon is consoled by Iolanthe. Phyllis and the Peers oversee the conversation and, since Iolanthe, like all fairies, looks like a girl of seventeen, they misinterpret what they see. They ridicule Strephon's claim that Iolanthe is his mother, and Phyllis declares she will marry either Lord Tolloller or Lord Mountararat.

Not amused, the Queen and the other Fairies take revenge by not only sending Strephon to Parliament but influencing both Houses to pass any bill he introduces--even one which will throw the peerage open to competitive examination. The Peers see doom approaching and appeal to the Fairies to desist. The Fairies have fallen in love with the Peers and would like to oblige, but Strephon has gone too far to stop.

Tolloller and Mountararat discover a deadly family tradition will be invoked if either of them marries Phyllis, so they renounce her in the name of friendship. But the Lord Chancellor has managed to convince himself he is legally permitted to marry Phyllis. Strephon, meanwhile, has made Phyllis understand his mother is a fairy, and they are reconciled. They persuade Iolanthe to plead their case with the Lord Chancellor.

Her appeal can only be effective, however, if Iolanthe reveals her long-kept secret and incurs the death penalty again. When the rest of the Fairies inform the Queen they all share Iolanthe's guilt and deserve the same sentence, we find ourselves teetering on the edge of certain doom.

Equal to the situation, the Lord Chancellor applies Gilbertean logic to save everyone's life--and bring us all to the obligatory happy ending.

-- Kurtiss Gordon

Overture

Act I:

1.	Tripping hither, tripping thither	Celia, Leila, Fairies
2.	Iolanthe! From thy dark exile (Invocation)	Fairy Queen, Iolanthe, Celia, Leila, Fairies
3.	Good morrow, good mother	Strephon and Fairies
4.	Fare thee well	Queen and Fairies
4a.	Good morrow, good lover	Phyllis and Strephon
5.	None shall part us	Phyllis and Strephon
6.	Loudly let the trumpets bray (Entrance and March of the Peers)	Peers
7.	The law is the true embodiment	Lord Chancellor and Peers
8.	My well-loved lord and guardian dear	Phyllis, Tolloller, Mountararat, and Peers
9.	Nay, tempt me not	Phyllis and Peers
10.	Spurn not the nobly born	Tolloller and Peers
11.	My lords, it may not be	Phyllis, Tolloller, Strephon, Mountararat, Lord Chancellor, and Peers
12.	When I went to the bar as a very young man	Lord Chancellor
13.	When darkly looms the day (Finale)	Ensemble

Act II:

14.	When all night long a chap remains	Pvt. Willis
15.	Strephon's a member of Parliament	Fairies and Peers
16.	When Britain really ruled the waves	Mountararat, Fairies, and Peers
17.	In vain to us you plead	Leila, Celia, Fairies, Tolloller, Mountararat
18.	Oh, foolish fay	Fairy Queen and Fairies
19.	Though p'rhaps I may incur your blame	Phyllis, Tolloller, Mountararat, and Pvt. Willis
20.	Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest	Lord Chancellor
21.	If you go in, you're sure to win	Tolloller, Mountararat, and Lord Chancellor
22.	If we're weak enough to tarry	Phyllis and Strephon
23.	My lord, a suppliant at your feet	Iolanthe
24.	It may not be	Iolanthe, Fairy Queen, Lord Chancellor, and Fairies
25.	Soon as we may, off and away (Finale)	Ensemble

COSTUME CONSTRUCTION--Diane Helgesen, Phyllis Jordan, Diane Kelton, and Elaine Walker, co-heads;

Mildred Allenchy, Mary Annarella, Catherine Bennett, Connie Cappelli, Maureen Crocker, Ann Greene, Naomi Gutierrez, Jacqueline Haney, Doris Holden, Marese Dolan Hutchinson, Karen Jordan, Nina Kleinberg, Louise Krieger, Constance La Pointe, Wendy Larson, Elysse Link, Louise MacDonald, Jean MacKimmie, Alice Mertz, Rena Moore, Sheila Mulvaney, Yvonne Nicholson, Benjamin Pike, Emily Rosenberg, Kathy Tobiassen, Sally Venman

MAKE-UP--Carol Lee, head;

Sarah Patterson, Henry Peirce, Shirley Pérez, Linda Stark, Barbara Wurtzel

HAIR DRESSING--Hair by Harlow

SET CONSTRUCTION--Lew Jordan, head;

Bryant Carpenter, John Foster, Dennis Gordan, Bob Graham, Sean Kennedy, Janet Mankowsky, Steve Morgan, Jim Pistrang, Chris Riddle, DeAnne Riddle, Dick Stromgren, Bill Venman, Jim Walker

SCENE PAINTING--Chris Riddle, head;

Carlton Brose, Anne Clark, Lloyd Craighill, Karen Jones, Judi Pierce, DeAnne Riddle

LIGHTING--Matt Kimmel, head;

Joshua Kranz, Drew Lichtenberg, Nick Lichtenberg, Cindy Mathews, Steve Morgan, Geoff Moss, Dave Stokes, Ken Weinberg

PROPERTIES--Marese Dolan Hutchinson, head;

John Foster, Kevin P. Hutchinson, Bill Venman, and the costume crew

PROGRAM--Kurtiss Gordon, head;

Cami Elbow, Louise Krieger, Paul E. Peelle, Fred Zinn

PUBLICITY--Steve Stoia, head;

Carlton Brose, Ruth Levine, Janet Lowry, Marion Rosenau, Marion Williams, and Town of Amherst Leisure Services, Inc.

TICKETS--Laurel Kushi, head;

Pat Desmarais, Caralyn Leavis, Donna Roy, and Town of Amherst Leisure Services, Inc.

OUTREACH--Kathy Moser, head;

Mary Annarella, Cathy Butterfield, Glen Gordon, Sean Kennedy, Elysse Link, Mzamo P. Mangaliso, Rena Moore, Paul E. Peelle, Steve Tanne

BANNER PAINTING--Alycen Waltein

USHERS--Kevyn Clegg, coordinator;

Barrett Allison, Caroline Allison, Zara Bohan, Claire Brassord, Kate Campbell-Strauss, Matthew Denny, Charlotte De Vries, Paul De Vries, Maya Elinevsky, Elizabeth Goodwin, Tyler Goodwin, Bruce Griffin, Dorothy Griffin, Julia Griffin, Meng He, Abigail Howard, Benjamin Howard, Sally Lawton, Unati Mangaliso, Zengie Mangaliso, Kelly Morgan, Judy Orvis, Christina Pastorello, John Pastorello, Darden Pitts, Janine Rosen, Skye Smith, Matthew Stebbins

COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHY

Deborah Campbell, Gigi Kaeser, Spring Sheldon, Kathy Tobiassen

COMMISSARY--Mimi Cary, head;

Mary Annarella, Esta Busi, Rena Moore

GIFT SHOP--Mimi Cary, head;

Chip Jackson, Rose Jackson, Caralyn Leavis, Rena Moore

PERFORMANCE REFRESHMENTS--Amherst Regional High School Theatre Company

Mary Annarella -- Phyllis -- joins our cast for her fourth VLO fall production, having played Lady Saphir in 1998's Patience and Edith in The Pirates of Penzance last fall. She was the goddess Ceres in this summer's Hampshire Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest. Other credits include Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Baroness in The Sound of Music, and Viney in The Miracle Worker. Sunday mornings, Mary can usually be heard singing in the choir at the Edwards Church.

James Brower -- Strephon -- appeared with VLO as Samuel in Pirates and as the Duke of Dunstable in Patience. He has sung with the Hampshire Choral Society, and was also seen as Mordred in Westfield Theatre Group's Camelot and in Country Players' Side by Side by Sondheim. Offstage, Jim likes to read, commune with nature, cook, and go to the movies. He also leads nature walks for Mass. Audubon Society at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary.

Heather Lee Crocker -- Leila -- has appeared in Commonwealth Opera's South Pacific, Kismet, The Phantom Tollbooth, Oklahoma!, Die Fledermaus, Oliver, and several Gala Guild concerts. At Hampshire Regional High School, where she is a senior, she has performed in numerous Advanced Chorus concerts and Drama Club productions. Heather lives in Williamsburg and studies voice with Susanne Anderson. This is her VLO debut.

Nicholas Dahlman -- Pvt. Willis -- came to Amherst from southern California in 1993 and stayed for the weather (he says). His college theater experience includes Henry in Amherst's The Lion in Winter and Mane in Smith's North and Mane. His musical roles include Mysterious Man and Rapunzel's Prince in Into the Woods, and the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. Nicholas graduated from Amherst College in 1998 and now works there in the computer center.

Rebecca Dowling -- Celia -- is an Easthampton resident, a senior at Valley Christian School in Northampton, and a dual-enrollment student at Holyoke Community College. She has sung in numerous school programs, most recently as the mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. She sang in this year's MMEA All-State Chorus and for two years in the Western District Chorus. She studies voice with Dianne Smith. This is Rebecca's first VLO appearance.

Dennis Gordan -- Lord Mountararat -- is new to VLO this year. For the Springfield Jewish Community Center, he played Mr. Bumble in Oliver, Beau in Auntie Mame, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes, and Kralahome in The King and I. He was the Pirate King in a high school production of The Pirates of Penzance in Fort Lee, NJ. A physician, formerly at Mercy Hospital and in private practice, Dennis is now the associate medical director of Mass Mutual's Disability Income Department.

Louise Krieger -- Iolanthe -- returns to the VLO stage in the show that introduced her to G&S at age 14. She was last seen here as Pitti-Sing in The Mikado (1996). In the interim, she has played Guenevere in Camelot (Westfield Theatre Group), Laurey in Oklahoma! (Country Players), and Elizabeth Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days (R&L Productions). Louise has made solo appearances with Hampshire Choral Society, Holyoke Civic Symphony, and in recitals throughout New England. She enjoys her day job at the Smith College Career Development Office.

Steve Morgan -- Lord Chancellor -- has been involved with VLO since 1977 as performer, producer, and in a variety of other capacities. He has been seen on stage with VLO in such roles as Arac in the 1981 Princess Ida, Bunthorne in Patience (1998), and the Major General in last year's Pirates. Other local community theater roles include Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Emile deBecque in South Pacific, and the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Matthew Roehrig -- Hillaria -- is appearing in his sixteenth role with VLO. Audiences will remember him as Grosvenor in Patience, François Villon in The Vagabond King, King Hildebrand in Princess Ida, and Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld. His other Pioneer Valley performances include Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and El Gallo in The Fantasticks. He also appeared with the Broadway revue group Give My Regards. Matt is a sixth grade teacher in Belchertown.

Kathy Tobiassen -- Fleta -- is singing her first VLO lead role after two years in the chorus. Before coming to the Valley, she played Morgan le Fay in Camelot, Gymnasia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Mrs. Sowerberry in Oliver for the Orpheus Theatre of Oneonta, NY. Kathy is the Chemistry Department's graduate program manager at UMass and also does voice-overs professionally. She lives in Belchertown with her husband Bill Vining.

Glenn Wall -- Lord Tolloller -- is making his VLO debut. He has just completed a rather busy summer with Ja'Duke Productions, playing Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun and Wilbur Wright in the original musical Crosswinds. When not at rehearsal somewhere, he works at the main Post Office in Amherst.

Nancy Clydesdale -- Stage Manager -- has worked behind the scenes for VLO for many years in many capacities in costumes, in make-up, on the Board, and as stage manager and producer for seven productions from The Mikado (1987) through Orpheus in the Underworld (1994). Nancy works for Sinauer Associates Publishers in Sunderland and lives in Granby.

Russ Ekstrom -- Stage Director -- directed The Mikado (1996) and had chorus roles in Princess Ida and H.M.S. Pinafore. Russ currently is Associate Company Manager for the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven and recently served as Company Manager for TheatreFest at Montclair State University (NJ) and for the North American Tour of The Magic School Bus Live! In NYC, he was Assistant Director for Reno Finds Her Mind and Hotbed, and he is a member of New York Theatre Workshop's Usual Suspects. Raised in Scottsdale, AZ, Russ currently divides his time between New York and New Haven.

Cami Elbow -- Coordinating Producer -- returns for her third year as a producer. She has sung in the chorus of most VLO productions since The Pirates of Penzance in 1989, and has also served at various times as president of the Board of Directors, house manager, and usher coordinator. Cami is a retired divorce mediator and lives in Amherst.

John Foster -- Producer -- has sung in every VLO chorus since The Grand Duke (spring 1988), enjoying particularly the shows in which his daughter Lorena Healy has been one of the principals. He has constructed many a sword, bow, and quiver, and solved numerous technical problems with sets and props. This is his second stint as producer. John retired from Hampshire College six years ago after 25 years as a professor of biology. He and his wife Nancy live in Amherst.

Peter Gutowski -- Music Director -- made his VLO debut last year conducting The Pirates of Penzance. He has also worked with Commonwealth Opera, where he conducted Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Rossini's La Cenerentola, and served as a member of the board of directors. Peter received a BM in theory and composition from the University of Massachusetts and a MM from Indiana University in orchestral conducting. He has started a Linux consulting and education business, LinuxChamps.com, and resides in Florence.

Mary Hocken -- Producer -- first appeared with VLO as Pitti-Sing in The Mikado (1977), but her favorite role was Mad Margaret in 1991's Ruddigore. She's not sure what that indicates! She has had a few other leads, sung in the chorus, played 'cello in the orchestra, been president of the Board, and last year was the usher coordinator. In her retirement Mary still sings and acts in a play every now and again. She lives in Amherst.

Marion Jasmin -- Choreographer -- choreographed Orpheus in the Underworld (1994) and two earlier VLO productions. She has also choreographed such plays as Godspell, Fiddler on the Roof, and Lost & Found for St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. Marion lives in Greenfield, works at her mother's Amherst Tire Center, and studies Arboriculture and Park Management in the Stockbridge School at UMass. She continues to dance "just 'cuz these old bones love it so."

Lew Jordan -- Technical Director -- started working on sets for VLO in 1995, so he could see more of his wife Phyllis and daughter Karen, who were sewing costumes for Princess Ida. That was six performances ago. The next year he was assistant stage manager for The Mikado, and for the last three years has served as co-technical director. He is on the Board of Directors. Lew has also stage managed for the Saint Brigid's Players. By day, he is a network specialist at UMass.

Matt Kimmel -- Lighting Designer -- is working on his seventh show with VLO. He designed lights for last year's production of The Pirates of Penzance, and has served as stage manager, assistant director, and master electrician, among others. Matt also works with several other local theatre groups; his most recent project was directing Flowers for Algernon for Arena Civic Theatre. In "real life," Matt is head of the Programming Department at a computer game company in Northampton.

Robin MacRostie -- Costume Designer -- has designed costumes for four previous VLO productions, including our 1986 Iolanthe. She also choreographed five shows, from Ruddigore (1982) to Thespis (1991), and has done both choreography and costume design for Commonwealth Opera. Robin has danced with the University Dancers and in concerts at all Five Colleges. She is currently pursuing a new career as a free-lance graphical designer and digital artist, under the name choreoGRAPHX.

Chris Riddle -- Set Designer -- started participating in VLO last year as a set builder and painter. Although an architect by profession--partner in Kuhn Riddle Architects of Amherst--this is his first set design opportunity. He calls set design and building a "wonderful antidote to architecture. You design and build it in a few weeks, and then you have the show and tear it down."

Linda Stark -- Make-up Designer -- is designing make-up for her seventh VLO production. Linda studied fine art and received a degree in interior design at the University of Connecticut. She also studied painting in Italy and watercolor in New York, under the instruction of well-known American artists Sondra Frectleton and Jack Beal. Linda has lived in Amherst for 29 years. She is the mother of four and a grandmother. She is a trained pastry chef and runs a home business making special occasion cakes.

Elaine Walker -- Producer -- has sung soprano in the VLO chorus for many years and served as co-head of the costume crew every year since 1988. This is Elaine's seventh year as producer with VLO, and she co-founded and produced several musical shows with the St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. She also supervises the costume shop for the Theater Program at Hampshire College. Elaine is self-employed as a dressmaker in Amherst.

In February, when the producers called to inquire about my interest in directing Iolanthe, I was hunkered down in a hotel room in the grip of a Canadian winter. At that moment, autumn in Massachusetts sounded like heaven!

Something immediately made me want to do it. After all, another presidential election obligingly presented a backdrop against which to project Iolanthe's political zingers. And in reading the libretto, I was struck by how relevant Gilbert remains more than a century later. Besides the eternal battle between Liberal and Conservative with which Americans are familiar, the debate over the House of Lords has been revived in Britain with more fervor than ever. The issue also becomes more salient here "across the pond" as both major parties offer second-generation statesmen for the top job. In addition, a prominent Senate race moves the hotbed issue of women in politics again to the fore. (And I wonder how, writing today, Gilbert would "pillory Hillary.") Finally, the juxtaposition of fairy realm and "real world" (each presented as equally topsy-turvy in its own right) promised plenty of fertile terrain to explore during production.

Wherever the impulse came from, I'm glad at choosing this chaotic path. Should I have heeded sense and reason, I would not have seen how I could simultaneously work in New York (or New Haven, as it turned out) and direct a show in Amherst. Yet somehow, the act of committing clears the obstacles--or at least provides the impulse to hurdle them.

It simply would not have happened, however, without the tremendous support and commitment of "Team VLO"--all the remarkable people who make the magic happen every year. They, above all, are the reason I returned. I have laughed here more than I have laughed anywhere. And those around me seem always to be singing along with the music of my heart. You can't find that just anywhere. It is well worth the trip.

To do a thing joyfully is to do it well. And this company's spirit of harmony and devotion to a common goal is one of the finest examples of that which it has ever been my privilege to witness.

Now you will see that spirit brought to life on stage. I hope that we make you laugh or (at the very least) forget whatever may have been troubling you. But most of all, I hope that this production is our testament to the irresistible power of doing what you love and loving what you do. For me, that's really what it's all about.

-- Russ Ekstrom

Iolanthe, seventh of the fourteen collaborations of Gilbert and Sullivan, was the first to open at Richard D'Oyly Carte's sumptuous new Savoy Theatre on the Thames Embankment, on 25 November 1882. The name "Iolanthe" had figured in a translation of Henrik Hertz's King Rene's Daughter (originally Yolande), performed by Ellen Terry and Henry Irving in 1880, but Gilbert's plot was decidedly "new and original," as he was always proud to emphasize. Gilbert toyed with the idea of setting the scene in the House of Commons, but Lords who ruled by virtue of birth teemed with possibilities for satiric fun, especially when presided over by a susceptible Lord Chancellor capable of falling in love with one of the wards of court. The Fairy Queen's scheme to open the Peerage to competitive examination is more reality than joke in this year 2000, as the Labour government decimates their ranks and has the remnants campaigning for office amongst themselves.

The opening-night audience was treated to some electrifying thrills, the Savoy being the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The principal fairies even appeared with electric lights in their hair, powered by batteries on their backs. In the middle of the stalls sat Captain Eyre Massey Shaw, founder and chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and dapper figure about town who never missed an opening night, delighted to find himself the subject of a verse of the Fairy Queen's song. That verse constitutes the only wholly obscure topicality in the opera, although the reference to Strephon as a "Parliamentary Pickford" does depend upon knowing of the still-extant Pickford moving van company, whose motto at the time was "We carry everything!" Gladstone was also in the house that night, but if the confrontation between Fairy Queen and Lord Chancellor was intended as a parody of Victoria and her Prime Minister, he took no offense, and had only praise for Sullivan's music. The Queen, of course, was not present, having never attended a public theatre since the death of her beloved Prince Albert in 1861.

Peers paired with peris proved more than comic-opera whimsy during the run of 398 performances, Lord Garmoyle being so smitten by May Fortescue, the actress playing Celia, that he proposed marriage. When his family prevented the match, Gilbert came to the rescue of his drooping fairy and helped her fly away with an out-of-court settlement of £10,000. Substantial damages!

-- Jim Ellis

Valley Light Opera expresses thanks to the following for helping to make this production possible: the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools' staff, especially Ron Bell and Maryanna Whittemore of the Superintendent's Office, the music and theater faculty, and the custodial staff, for their good nature, flexibility, and unstinting support; Alycen and Dick Waltein for our new banner; the Town of Amherst Department of Public Works for hanging the banner; Glenn Siegel and WMUA for public service announcements; PowerVue Graphics of West Springfield for hosting the VLO intranet site; Burger King of Hadley for props; and to Sally and Bill Venman for caring for the VLO year-round and always being there when we sought advice.

Valley Light Opera is on the World Wide Web at http://www.vlo.org/. We express our gratitude and appreciation to BerkshireNet for hosting our site. BerkshireNet (http://www.berkshire.net/) provides Internet service to Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. Over the years, VLO has been guided by two principles--to promote broad community participation and to produce fine entertainment. In the course of its first 25 years, Valley Light Opera has produced all fourteen of the G&S operas as well as Cox and Box, The Zoo, and Sullivan's oratorio The Prodigal Son. In addition, VLO has performed Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, Warren Martin's The True Story of Cinderella, and several of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach works.

The affairs of VLO are in the hands of a Board of Directors elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting in February. Officers of the Board this year are Mzamo Mangaliso (President), Barbara Davis (Past President), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), and James Walker (Treasurer). Members of the Board are Mary Annarella, Catharine Butterfield, Phil DiPeri, John Jenkins, Lew Jordan, Caralyn Leavis, Rena Moore, Kathy Moser, Stephen Tanne, and Kathy Tobiassen.

Donations to Valley Light Opera are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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