The CSU Summer Conducting Seminar continues its fun tradition of presenting a delightful concert version of a popular operetta or Broadway musical. The project serves as the master’s thesis for working music educators from around the world who participate in the seminar for three consecutive summers.

Musical direction by Wes Kenney
Stage direction by Brian Leudloff
Student conductors:

• Stephanie Bivins
• Andrew Hill
• Rachael Napper
• Payden Nichols
• Patrick Ordway
• Amanda Young

About the operetta

“Iolanthe,” or “The Peer and the Peri,” opened at the Savoy Theatre on November 25, 1882, three nights after the final performance of Patience at the same theatre, and ran for 398 performances.

Gilbert had taken potshots at the aristocracy before, but in this “fairy opera,” the House of Lords is lampooned as a bastion of the ineffective, privileged, and dim-witted. The political party system and other institutions also come in for a dose of satire. Yet, both author and composer managed to couch the criticism among such bouncy, amiable absurdities that are all received as good fun.

Both Gilbert and Sullivan were at the height of their creative powers in 1882, and many people feel that Iolanthe, their seventh work together, is the most perfect of their collaborations.

Strephon, an Arcadian shepherd, wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward of Chancery. Phyllis does not know that Strephon is half fairy (his upper half — his legs are mortal!) and when she sees Strephon kissing a seemingly young woman, she assumes the worst. But her “rival” turns out to be none other than Strephon’s own mother, Iolanthe, a fairy — fairies never grow old.

But Phyllis’ guardian, the Lord Chancellor, and half the peers in the House of Lords are sighing after her. Soon the peers and the fairies are virtually at war, and long friendships are nearly torn asunder. But all is happily sorted out, thanks to the “subtleties of the legal mind.”

Description from gsarchive.net/iolanthe