Fallen Fairies

Fallen Fairies; or, The Wicked World, is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Edward German. The story is an operatic adaptation of Gilbert's 1873 blank-verse fairy comedy, The Wicked World. In Fairyland, the fairies are curious about wicked mortals, especially their strange capacity for love. They summon three mortal men from the world below to observe them and to teach the men how to live virtuously. The fairies fall in love with the mortals, become jealous of each other and behave badly. The men return to Earth, and the fairies realize that love is overrated.

The piece premiered at London's Savoy Theatre on 15 December 1909. Gilbert directed the opera. Charles Herbert Workman produced and starred as Lutin. The cast also featured Claude Flemming as Ethais, Leo Sheffield as Phyllon and Nancy McIntosh as Selene, with choreography by John D'Auban and costume designs by Percy Anderson. McIntosh received negative reviews, and Workman soon replaced her with Amy Evans and made changes in the play that angered Gilbert, who sued Workman. Despite better reviews for Evans, the work did not please the critics, or ultimately the audiences. It failed, closing after just 50 performances. Neither Gilbert nor German would write another opera.

Early in his career, Gilbert wrote a number of successful blank-verse fairy comedies. He was clearly fascinated by this plot, which had been the subject of his 1871 short story of the same name before writing The Wicked World in 1873. He also wrote (under a pseudonym) an 1873 play that parodies The Wicked World called The Happy Land, and contained much political satire aimed at politicians of the day; this made a sensation at the Court Theatre after the Lord Chamberlain banned parts of it.

...
Wikipedia