The Yeomen of the Guard – Opera Holland Park, London

Composer: Arthur Sullivan

Libretto: W S Gilbert

Director: John Savournin

For Opera Holland Park’s last production of its 2024 season, it once again joins forces with Charles Court Opera to stage a production of a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera.

2023’s production ofRuddigoreis followed by the next, chronologically, in the G&S canon. The eleventh collaboration (of fourteen),The Yeomen of the Guard shows how much Arthur Sullivan, in particular, had ambitions beyond the duo’s trademark comedies. The score has a richness that originally took advantage of a larger orchestra. This production features reduced orchestrations by Richard Balcombe to suit the City of London Sinfonia under conductor David Eaton, but the sumptuousness of Sullivan’s music remains undimmed.

Perhaps befitting this more grown-up score, Gilbert’s libretto eschews some of his more common topsy-turvy plot machinations, allowing a more sentimental side to the humour to shine. There are still some trademark twists to enjoy, though. After all, the whole story involves Colonel Fairfax (William Morgan), due for execution in the 16th Century Tower of London on a charge of sorcery, and who, with the help of the smitten Phoebe (Samantha Price), the daughter of the Yeomen’s sergeant, escapes by posing as Phoebe’s brother.

The cast is all in fine form, with sterling work from Darren Jeffery’s Sergeant Meryll and Amy J Payne as Dame Carruthers. Director John Savournin has a blast in the role of the unctuous jailer Wilfred Shadbolt, whose unrequited desires for Phoebe help propel Gilbert’s story through its nuanced layers of farce.

But things hot up with the arrival of two travelling players, the clowning Jack Point (Matthew Kellett) and his partner Elsie (Llio Evans). Much of the trademark G&S silliness is framed within their performances, at least until Elsie ends up married to Fairfax. Point’s ambitions for love are thwarted when his competitor for her hand is not executed as expected.

At this performance, Evans was not well enough to sing, so walked through the role with both her spoken and singing voice provided from the orchestra pit by Ellie Laugharne. It is a testament to both performers – and the whole company – that such an arrangement does not detract. As for Kellett, he brings great energy to the jester’s role, with both acrobatic and vocal dexterity. There are occasions at which, while singing, he tends to get slightly ahead of the pace set by Eaton’s conducting, but he brings such charm to the role that it feels forgivable.

In comparison, Morgan’s Fairfax is a much more anodyne figure. That’s true with many a romantic lead, of course, and Morgan also has to contend with temperamental microphone amplification at times. But a little more presence and a sense of why Phoebe and Elsie might both be so taken with him would elevate the show further.

As the operetta gracefully transitions to a more bittersweet ending, Kellett’s performance ensures that the production concludes on a note of pathos. This poignant finale secures this production ofThe Yeomen of the Guardas a deft recreation of the play’s strengths: brimming with humour, yet unashamedly romantic at its core.

Continues until 10 August 2024