You will not find Utopia, limited or unlimited, on any map; indeed, come to that, you are hardly likely to find it anywhere, are you?  But Gilbert thought it would probably be a tropical lazyland in the Pacific.  So it is on such a scene that our curtain rises and we learn at once a political and social upheaval is just about to begin.

The despotic King Paramount has looked to England for inspiration - England "that glorious country pre-eminent among civilized nations" ... England where "the conversation of every meanest is a coruscation of impromptu epigram" ... England whose "every youth is a Greek god" ... England where - but let us modestly press on.  Paramount has sent his eldest daughter Zara to England to get the full treatment, and she is returning this very day after five years of Girton and the Fabian Society and the Albert Memorial and what have we.

Utopia has hitherto been governed on an odd system.  The King is advised, spied upon and bullied by two wise men, Scaphio and Phantis, with the Public Exploder, Tarara, in the background.  One false move from the King and he will be condemned by the wise men, and then dynamited by Tarara, who will succeed to the throne.

Now for the 'boy-meets-girl' interest ... it seems that Phantis has a crush on Princess Zara.  Scaphio is not addicted to women, but has an ideal who sounds from his description like a rather superior piece of bubble gum.  So he promises to help Phantis to get Zara as a bride.  King Paramount is in the love-throes, too.  The fact that he is made by his wise men to write spicy scandal about himself in the society press is doing him no good with his ideal woman, Lady Sophy.  She is one of the long line of Gilbert's elderly respectable spinsters, whom Paramount has imported from England to instruct his young twin daughters, Nekaya and Kalyba, the in the English way of life.

The Princess is not alone when she returns.  She has brought with her a section of the Life Guards under their officer Arthur Fitzbattleaxe, who, it soon appears, must have putting in some useful work on the moonlit boat deck on the way out.  She has also five other representatives of the causes and institutions that have made England what she is (see above).  They are called the Flowers of Progress, and they include our old friend Captain Corcoran, who has raised a knighthood and lowered his voice since we knew him his 'Pinafore' days.  There is also Mr. Goldbury, company promoter.

It is Goldbury who gives us our title, for he explains the workings of limited liability under the Joint Stock Company Act of 1862.  The King decides that what is good enough for England is good enough for him and so the monarchy becomes a limited company.  The curtain falls on the end of an era; Utopia ceases to be lazyland and becomes strictly business, Utopia (in fact) Limited.

When the curtain rises again it is obvious that we shall soon be in deep water.  To begin with, Fitzbattleaxe, who is a tenor, seems to have lost both his heart and his high C on the high seas.  Zara thinks this vocal deprivation doesn't matter.  (We in this opera company would opine that the loss of a commodity like a high C is little short of tragic.  But that's by the way.)  We learn that in the early trial period the new financial system is working well, perhaps too well.  We see the first Utopian Cabinet Council with Paramount being assured that if it is not exactly in accordance with the practice at the court of St. James's, it is at least in accordance with practice at St. James's Hall - the home, in Gilbert's day, of a famous band of n****r minstrels (2001 - editing required here of 1956 programme notes - Ed.).  (It was this line in the opera that so startled and offended Queen Victoria's court.)

The first Royal Drawing Room passes off well, but then the cracks begin to appear in the Utopian fabric.  The new representatives of English culture have been playing the deuce with political and financial life, and ruining the theatre and one or two private swindles of Scaphio and Phantis into the bargain.  This precious pair co-opt Tarara and hatch a plot.

Crisis is around the corner.  The new system has removed the threat of war; there is no crime and no sickness, and the soldiers, sailors, lawyers and doctors are starving.  What is to be done?  The additions of a single English ingredient - we leave you to learn what it is - will do the trick.

So all ends well, except for the wise men.  Paramount gets his English lady, Zara her Arthur, and Arthur, we hope, will recover his high C, which will no doubt come in handy in our next production.

Bertram Mycock - from the 1956 production programme.