Bronx Opera to Present Gilbert & Sullivan's IOLANTHE or THE PEER AND THE PERI This Month

GILBERT & SULLIVAN will pay a visit to The Bronx when the BRONX OPERA COMPANY performs IOLANTHE or The Peer and the Peri, the G&S comic opera, filled with their special talent for satirical humor.  Performances May 11-18, 2 evenings and 2 matinees, at the Lovinger Theater at Lehman College.

General director Ben Spierman remarks that Bronx Opera picked Iolanthe because "it's the perfect balance.  Sullivan and Gilbert mixed humor and pathos in perfect measure.  Frivolity, long-lost love found...  romance...incredible opportunities for our brilliant cast, chorus and orchestra to show off...Iolanthe has it all!!"  Director Spierman and company are planning for a unique, interactive experience, with the audience never knowing where the cast will appear, whom they'll talk to, and where they'll go.

In Iolanthe, the seventh of G&S's fourteen operatic collaborations, the fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal; this is forbidden by fairy law.  Iolanthe's son Strephon wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward of Chancery; in fact, half 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 and beautiful), she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies.

The opera satirizes many aspects of British government, law, and society.  The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's favorite themes: a tranquil civilization of women which is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love.

The cast includes Vanessa Aldrich, Brian J. Alvardo, Justin Chandler Baptista, Alexandra Cirile, Jasmine Collins, Anchal Indu Dhir, Kayla Faccilongo, Miastasha Gonzalez-Colon, Emily Hughes, Muir Ingliss, Alonso Jordan Lopez, Marieke de Koker, Francesca Lionetta, Barbee Monk, Michael Nansel, Michael Niemann, Jonathan Fox Powers, William Remmers, Costas Tsourakis, Caroline Tye, and Matthew Youngblood.

Four performances run Saturday, May 11 at 7:30 PM; Sunday, May 12 at 2:30 PM; Friday, May 17 at 7:30 PM; and Saturday, May 18 at 2:30 PM at Lovinger Theater at Lehman College (250 Bedford Park Blvd. West, The Bronx).

Tickets: $40 orchestra; $30 mezzanine

ABOUT BRONX OPERA

Bronx Opera Company was founded in 1967 by its artistic director and music director, the conductor Michael Spierman, and is operated by Maestro Spierman in partnership with his son Benjamin Spierman, the company's general director.  The Company is a member of the New York Opera Alliance.

Bronx Opera Company presents two full productions each year.  Its repertoire ranges from very rarely performed works to opera's "top ten".  All productions are sung in English, and with full orchestra and chorus.  Additionally, the Company presents concerts of opera excerpts throughout the year in the Bronx, Manhattan, and surrounding areas, and partners with local community schools and organizations to spread the word about the current production, create performances, and educate people in all areas of the performing arts.

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