Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe review: An opera with a cast that is pretty close to perfect

After an audience warm-up from actor Clive Mantle’s Captain Shaw (the real Captain Shaw attended the opera’s 1882 premiere) the curtain rises to an exquisite fairy’s eye view of Arcadia.

A painted bullfinch and butterfly among the foliage are scaled up to the size of the fairies’ chorus “tripping hither, tripping thither”.

The set, resembling a picture from Victorian artist Richard Doyle’s Fairyland, is the final work of the visionary set designer Paul Brown, who died in November.

We move to the human-sized woodland of Arcadia, as the Queen of the Fairies (Yvonne Howard) recalls Iolanthe from her 25 years of banishment for the crime of marrying a mortal.

The plot involves shepherd Strephon, son of Iolanthe and therefore half-fairy half-mortal (the mortal bit being from the waist down), in love with Phyllis, ward of the Lord Chancellor.

The entire House of Lords and the Lord Chancellor himself are also in love with Phyllis.

In a startling theatrical coup, a full-size steam model of Stephenson’s Rocket bursts through the painted backcloth and disgorges a chorus of tantantara-ing peers who press their suit with Phyllis to choose one of their number.

With a nod to today’s political personalities, McCrystal gives one of the peers a blond mop, and glinting spectacles to another.

He doesn’t need to alter a word of Gilbert’s view of Tory/Whig politics as expressed in the ruminations of Guardsman Private Willis (Barnaby Rea) on the political divide, “When all night long a chap remains…”

To Gilbert’s razor-sharp wit McCrystal adds a helping of visual gags, such as Captain Shaw’s intervention when the Queen of the Fairies sets the stage alight.

Arcadian shepherd and shepherdess Strephon and Phyllis are clothed in toile de jouy costumes and accompanied by model sheep.

The Coliseum’s flying equipment frequently wings fairies and mortals through the air.

The cast is pretty close to perfect.

ENO Harewood Artist Samantha Price brings a lyrical mezzo to the title role.

Yvonne Howard is a commanding Queen of the Fairies and Andrew Shore is appealing as the troubled Lord Chancellor.

Ellie Laugharne and Marcus Farnsworth as the young lovers complement each other beautifully.

Ben Johnson as Earl Tolloller and Ben McAteer as the Earl of Mountararat have a touching buddy moment.

A favourite piece of McCrystal’s slapstick involves the Lord Chancellor’s Page boy, rubber-limbed actor Richard Leeming, ending up as the peers’ punchbag when he presumes to use the Woolsack as a trampoline.

English National Opera’s orchestra under conductor Timothy Henty plays with verve, and also brings out the subtle aspects of Sullivan’s allusions to Mendelssohn and Wagner in this joyously theatrical evening.