Printed silk folded in half, within a card cover with a thin silk tassel threaded through the top corner Silk programme for Iolanthe, Boston Bijou Theatre, 1882 This was the first performance in Boston of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri, which opened simultaneously at the Savoy Theatre in London and the Standard Theatre in New York on 22nd November 1882. It was performed 159 times in total at the Bijou Theatre, becoming a notably successful regional production of the opera. The performance also marked the opening of theatre itself, which had been renovated under direction of George H. Tyler. The theatre was known for its photography of its opera productions, and for being the first theatre to be lit with electric lighting by Thomas Edison.