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*** “Iolanthe.”

Home Vision. $39.95.

Beware: The classic Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera about fairyland’s influence on the British House of Lords has been radically rewritten, rescored, cut, padded, hoked up and coarsened in this 1985 Stratford Festival (Canada) production. The obscure Victorian topical references of the original are gone--replaced by jokes about contemporary Canadian politics that U. S. viewers may find equally incomprehensible. And though Brian Macdonald’s staging has its moments (especially when Marie Baron is prominent as Phyllis opposite Paul Massel as Strephon), the emphasis on never-ceasing motion usually results in woozy overkill. Maureen Forrester sounds rusty as the Fairy Queen and Eric Donkin mugs relentlessly as the Lord Chancellor. All the singing is lip-synced (to canned applause). Uneven camera work, excellent sound.