The Yeomen of the Guard

3 October 1888, Savoy Theatre, London

Arthur Sullivan · libretto by W. S. Gilbert

A colonel under sentence of death in the Tower of London marries a strolling singer, blindfolded, an hour before his execution so that a cousin cannot inherit his estate — and then escapes, leaving her married to a man she has never seen and a jester in love with her. Subtitled "The Merryman and his Maid", it is the most operatic and the darkest of the series, the one Sullivan was proudest of, and the only one that does not end happily for everybody.

How to spot them

▸Tower Green in the sixteenth century; a beefeater chorus and a headsman's block
▸A blindfold marriage arranged to defeat an inheritance
▸A strolling jester and his partner who sing for pennies and are pressed into a plot
▸A grim head jailer courted for the key to a cell
▸Subtitled 'The Merryman and his Maid'; the only one of the series with a sombre curtain

Arias & moments — listen

"I have a song to sing, O!" — a cumulative ballad about a merryman moping mum and a lady of high degree (1888)

Jack Point and Elsie Maynard's duet, built by Gilbert on the rhythm of a sea shanty and returning, broken, at the final curtain

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Is life a boon? If so, it must befall that Death, whene'er he call, must call too soon" (1888)

Colonel Fairfax's aria before his execution, the most purely operatic solo in the canon

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Were I thy bride, then all the world beside were not too wide to hold my wealth of love" (1888)

Phoebe Meryll sings this while picking the jailer Wilfred Shadbolt's pocket for his keys

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Oh! a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon, if you listen to popular rumour" (1888)

Jack Point's bitter patter song on the trade of professional joking

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"When our gallant Norman foes had this stronghold in their hands" — a housekeeper's ballad about the fortress's bloodier days (1888)

Dame Carruthers's song: 'The screw may twist and the rack may turn'

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"When maiden loves, she sits and sighs" — the opening solo, sung alone at a spinning wheel instead of the usual opening chorus (1888)

Phoebe's song; the piece is the only one in the series not to open with a chorus

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The jester falls insensible at the final curtain as the bride he had hoped for is claimed by the reprieved prisoner (1888)

Gilbert's stage direction for Jack Point; whether he dies is left to the production

Quick-fire facts

•Opened at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888 and ran for 423 performances.
•Gilbert said the idea came to him from an advertisement poster for the Tower Furnishing Company, showing a beefeater, seen while he waited at Uxbridge station.
•It was worked on under the title 'The Tower of London' before the final title was fixed.
•The overture is the only one in the series written in full sonata form, and one of the few Sullivan composed himself rather than delegating.
•Sullivan regarded it as his best theatre score, and it is often cited as the bridge to his grand opera Ivanhoe (1891).
•Characters: Colonel Fairfax, Elsie Maynard, Jack Point, Wilfred Shadbolt the head jailer, Sergeant Meryll, his daughter Phoebe and son Leonard, and Dame Carruthers.
•There is no supernatural or topsy-turvy premise: the plot turns on an inheritance, a forged reprieve and mistaken identity.
•The Tower setting is the sixteenth century, and Sir Richard Cholmondeley appears as Lieutenant of the Tower — a real holder of the office.

Drill it — 9 cards

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Sources

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive — The Yeomen of the Guard
Encyclopaedia Britannica — The Yeomen of the Guard: operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan
Arthur Jacobs — Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician