Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a
comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by
W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the
Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by
Gilbert and Sullivan. In the opera, the
fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal; this is forbidden by fairy law. Her son, Strephon, is an
Arcadian shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis, a
Ward of
Chancery. All the members of the
House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis. When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman (not knowing that it is his mother – immortal fairies all appear young), she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera
satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's favourite themes: a tranquil civilisation of women is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love.