Iolanthe

I am enjoying Iolanthe rehearsals immensely. Leonie Cambage and Nikkii Baker are great to work with and the chorus and principals are working hard and producing great sounds. I am looking forward to the production with eager anticipation. Gilbert and Sullivan is not an easy ask, by any means. There is a great need for accurate and well rounded pronunciation, with words on the very tip of the lips. This combined with the requirement for an operatic control of the voice, makes these deceptive shoals where those who don't navigate carefully can easily be grounded. Iolanthe is a great piece. Comparisons with Mendelssohn always come up, but I like it for itself. Sullivan lavished great care in the construction of the overture and it is a proper symphonic creation and not a medley of the tunes from the show - although there are these in it. Musically, Iolanthe is unified with leitmotifs, ever transformed throughout the score.