The Yeomen of the Guard
Gilbert claimed that the idea for the opera came to him while he was waiting for the train in Uxbridge and spotted an advertisement for The Tower Furnishing and Finance Company, illustrated with a Beefeater.
Sullivan was "immensely pleased" and, with much relief, accepted it, writing in his diary, "Pretty story, no topsy turvydom, very human, & funny also".
Jessie Bond, who was to open the show with a solo song alone on stage, recalled saying to him, "For Heaven's sake, Mr. Gilbert, go away and leave me alone, or I shan't be able to sing a note!
Wilfred Shadbolt – the head jailer and assistant torturer at the Tower of London – arrives, and Phoebe mocks him, disgusted by his profession.
After everyone leaves, Phoebe is joined by her father, Sergeant Meryll, who reports that her brother Leonard has been appointed a Yeoman for his valour in battle.
Fairfax asks a boon of the Lieutenant: the charge of sorcery was the doing of his wicked cousin Sir Clarence Poltwhistle, a Secretary of State, who will inherit his estate if he dies unmarried.
Jack Point, a jester, and Elsie Maynard, a young singer, are pursued by a rowdy crowd that demands merriment and threatens the two strolling players.
The Lieutenant offers Elsie a chance to earn a hundred crowns (a very substantial sum) by marrying a condemned gentleman immediately.
Wilfred leads Elsie back from her anonymous meeting with the priest and the prisoner and leaves her to reflect on her impending widowhood.
Meanwhile, Fairfax, still disguised as Leonard Meryll, laments his hurried marriage to a bride he cannot identify, for her face was concealed by the blindfold.
Phoebe, seeing her adored Fairfax pledged to another, bursts into tears, while Point, shocked by the turn of events, wishes he was dead.
Wilfred sees Phoebe weeping and she, rendered incautious by anger and hurt, and by her scorn for the jailer, inadvertently reveals that "Leonard" is in fact Fairfax.
Phoebe tells him of her folly and goes with Wilfred, whereupon Dame Carruthers reveals herself to Meryll and threatens to expose the three schemers who had freed Fairfax illegally.
Gilbert thought that Sullivan's first setting (in 68 time) was too similar to many of the other tenor ballads in the Savoy Operas, and he urged the composer to rewrite it.
Before opening night, the third and fourth yeomen's couplets in the Act I finale – in which they remind "Leonard" of his brave deeds – were cut, though they remained in the vocal score until around the 1920s.
Those chords do not appear in vocal scores, and modern performances usually delete them, bringing the duet to a full close so that the gentle opening bars of the finale are not covered by applause.
At some point, before 1920 or so, the "Oh day of terror" section of the Act II finale had the parts for Kate and Phoebe significantly reduced.
[14] The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime: The opera is different from the rest of the series in a number of respects.
Instead of the opera opening with a chorus, the curtain rises on a single figure seated at a spinning-wheel singing a touching ballad.
The Daily Telegraph's review of Yeomen was very admiring of Sullivan's efforts: The Times noted, "It should ... be acknowledged that Mr. Gilbert has earnestly endeavoured to leave familiar grooves and rise to higher things.
"[17] Writing in The Guardian in 2022, Michael Simkins praised the opera strongly: "Yeomen is surely their most human and richly textured work.
[18] Some critics suggested that Gilbert took too much of his story from William Vincent Wallace's 1845 opera, Maritana, in which a street singer is married in secret to a gentleman.
However, Gilbert and Sullivan were careful to replicate the historical Tower as closely as possible in the opera's settings, costumes and music.
He was responsible for the rebuilding of the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, the parish church of the Tower of London, where there is a prominent tomb in his memory.
[6] The 1982 Brent Walker video suffers from a number of important cuts and Joel Grey's much-criticised portrayal of Jack Point.
[36] A monument in Sullivan's memory was erected in the Victoria Embankment Gardens (London) and is inscribed with a lyric, chosen by Gilbert, from Yeomen: "Is life a boon?
[46] A 1957 American TV broadcast of the opera as part of the NBC Hallmark Hall of Fame series starred Alfred Drake as Point, Barbara Cook as Elsie, Celeste Holm as Phoebe and Bill Hayes as Fairfax, and featured Henry Calvin as Wilfred and Marjorie Gordon as Kate, with announcer Lee Vines.
[49] A 1975 TV version by the BBC stars Valerie Masterson as Elsie, Derek Hammond-Stroud as Point, David Hillman as Fairfax, Bryan Drake as Sgt.
[50] Another cut version was made in 1978 for British TV starring Tommy Steele as Point, Terry Jenkins as Fairfax, Anne Collins as Carruthers, Laureen Livingstone as Elsie, Della Jones as Phoebe, Paul Hudson as Meryll and Dennis Wicks as Wilfred.
[53] Perish in July, a 1989 novel by Mollie Hardwick, part of her Doran Fairweather series, involves a backstage murder of the actress playing Elsie.
