Iolanthe was one of two operas produced by the Sadler's Wells Opera (known today as the English National Opera) shortly after D'Oyly Carte's performing monopoly expired in 1961. It is interesting to note that Cynthia Morey, a leading D'Oyly Carte soprano of the 1950s, is here relegated to the role of an unnamed Fairy. The Phyllis here, Elizabeth Harwood, played small parts on a couple of the Sargent recordings and would play the leading soprano on the two D'Oyly Carte recordings Sargent conducted in the mid-sixties (although she never sang on stage with the Company).

The recording is not the complete opera, but the excerpts are substantiao. It has been re-issued on CD as part of an EMI "two-fer" CD box coupled with the Sadler's Wells Mikado.