In Iolanthe, the seventh of Gilbert & Sullivan'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.
