OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

From The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, December 2, 1882; Issue 8063.

"Iolanthe" stands condemned by the matured opinion of literary and theatrical circles, whose criticism is pitched in a decidedly less favourable key than that of the newspapers; and as the result, I fancy, Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan will pursue no further this particular line. The collaborators have practically exhausted their whimsical vein of humour.

Meanwhile, however, "Iolanthe" achieves a succès de vogue.  The booking is very brisk, for, of course, people must see the piece, though they are doomed to disappointment.

From The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), Tuesday, February 27, 1883; pg. 5; Issue 5253.

Iolanthe is certainly not to be compared with the preceding plays of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan which were written on the same lines. The music is not as taking as that of Patience, as a consequence of which one notices more and more that the hero of the Savoy, Mr. Grossmith, has absolutely no voice, and that he overdoes the comic parts. Mr. Barrington does not sing quite so much out of tune as he did, but there is room for improvement. The only one of the company who sings really well is the Queen of the Fairies, but I may be forgiven for saying that the juxtaposition of this enormous actress and the particularly small ladies who represent the fairies is not in the best taste.

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