Iolanthe 1998

July 11, 12, 1998

This performance was the first summer concert in which the cast was composed entirely of members of the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company.  Vern Sutton and his colleagues had elected not to continue doing Gilbert and Sullivan operetta concerts with the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra.  There was, therefore, no concert in the summer of 1997.  The following year, Jere Lantz and the Company discussed and agreed to an arrangement by which the Company would provide the entire cast, including both principals and chorus, for the production.  Since then, all subsequent concerts have been done only with casts from the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company.

While the cast was composed entirely of members of the Company, we didn’t actually have a record of who was in that cast and could only recall a few of the cast members!  While we had little hope that it would ever happen, the posting on this website page said, “Perhaps, someday, one of us will find an old program of the concert, saved as a memento, and we’ll be able to fill in the blanks!”

In 2013, our friend, long-time and founding Company member, Peter Erickson passed away.  Peter had been, for many years, considered to be the Company’s unofficial historian, and in his effects, given to the Company by his parents, was a sizable collection of company records, including show programs, dating back to the Company’s founding.  As it happened, one of the programs that Peter had saved was the one for this summer concert.  As a result and thanks to Peter, we now can share exactly who sang in that concert presentation of Iolanthe.