John McCarthy

A complete and unabridged translation of the fairy tale of a young girl gifted with an enchanted Nutcracker by her mysterious godfather Herr Drosselmeier; later, he relates The Tale of the Hard Nut to Marie, which explains how her Nutcracker came to be.

Ko-Ko, the Lord Executioner, is plagued by a terrible quandary: the emperor has instructed him to produce a head or forfeit his own.

Iolanthe used to be the life and soul of Fairyland but was banished 25 years ago for marrying a mortal. Now, pardoned by the Fairy Queen she returns as a beautiful teenager, but with a 24-year-old son, Strephon, who is half fairy, half mortal. He is in love with Phyllis, a ward of the rather susceptible Lord Chancellor. For a while, these complications wreck havoc with the proceedings of the House of Lords, giving Gilbert a chance to poke fun at that...

Phoebe Meryll's father has a plan to save Colonel Fairfax from execution. Fairfax needs to marry before he dies, and Elsie, the sweetheart of Jack Point, the professional jester, agrees to be his temporary bride.

Alexis, son of Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre, determined that all share the purity of his true love to Aline, daughter of Lady Sangazure, arranges for a love potion to be administered to everyone in the village.

Operetta in which Hilarion, awaiting the arrival of Princess Ida, who was betrothed to him twenty years earlier at the age of one, learns that she has renounced mankind and formed a women's university from which men are strictly barred.

Poet and esthete Reginald Bunthorne loves village milkmaid Patience who doesn't love poetry or understand love. She finally discovers what it means and decides to marry Reginald's rival.