Leader, MONTAGUE BREARLEY
Conductor, STANFORD ROBINSON
Iolanthe was the seventh of the Savoy series of operas in order of production, and followed immediately upon the successful run of Patience, of which over 400 performances had been given. Indeed, all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas had phenomenally long runs, Iolanthe, for example, holding the Savoy stage for more than a year. Sullivan by this time was already a very popular public figure. He had been tor three years Director of the newly-founded Royal College of Music, he had recently succeeded Costa as conductor of Leeds Festival, and within a few months from the beginning of the Iolanthe run he was to be knighted.