An introduction to The Yeomen of the Guard

Much like other Gilbert & Sullivan operas, the cast is a lovely lot – in the sense of everyone seems to be in love with one another!

Set at the Tower of London, Sergeant Meryll, of the titular Yeomen of the Guard, lives with his daughter, Phœbe Meryll. At the beginning of our tale, Phœbe has gained the eye of the Jailor, Wilfred Shadbolt. Wilfred, of course, has noticed who Phœbe has her eye on: Colonel Fairfax, a much grander man. Unfortunately, he’ll be a much less pretty picture without a head, as his execution is scheduled the same day.

Hatching a daring plan involving her brother Leonard impersonating the Colonel, this is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Jack Point and Elsie Maynard, a duo of performers. Jack, of course, is infatuated with Elsie, so when the Lieutenant of the tower asks if Elsie wishes to marry Fairfax to negate her family’s financial strife, she relents.

…and all that happens within the first few scenes of Act 1.

You might notice a grand total of five in our lovestruck cast: Phœbe, Wilfred, Fairfax, Jack and Elsie. Five, notoriously, is not a number which couples up easily. One of this number doesn’t get their happy ending – a rarity amongst Gilbert & Sullivan’s works!

Composed towards the tail end of their working partnership, The Yeomen of the Guard marks a notable departure from the rest of Gilbert & Sullivan’s compositional output. Whilst it remains at its heart a G&S show, Yeomen is perhaps their least farcical work, putting away some of the childish glee we’re used to in their operettas and choosing to instead focus on a more adult storyline – where perhaps not everyone gets their happy ending after all.

With this change in tone, Sullivan wrote what might be the best score of the bunch. Expanding the orchestra from the previously written Ruddigore, Sullivan’s use of the orchestra is masterful, straying from the familiar groove we know G&S operettas for in favour of more adventurous and daring writing.

Of course, this does not come at the expense of delightful tunes, to which Yeomen is full to the brim: ‘I have a song to sing, O’, ‘When a Wooer goes a-Wooing’, ‘Free from his fetters grim’ and more

Immediately a hit in London, The Yeomen of the Guard opened 3 October 1888 and ran for 423 performances, with a English provincial tour opening the same year. The D’Oyly Carte company, which performed almost exclusively Gilbert & Sullivan’s works from the 1870s up until the 1980s, quickly added the show to their repertoire, bring the show back again and again – with 4 revivals just in the remainder of Sullivan’s life.

2022’s The Yeomen of the Guard will mark the return of the dazzling duo Gilbert & Sullivan’s music to the London Coliseum. The ENO has quite a history with the pair’s operettas, with a bounty of beloved productions passing through our stage in the past few years: HMS Pinafore, Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance, to name but a few.

In 2022, we welcomed back Jo Davies to direct, who has previous directed Verdi’s Aida with us. Having an illustrious career, working at such institutions as Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.