The Yeomen of the Guard January 6, 2007

Set in the Tower of London during the turbulent reign of King Henry the Eighth, 'The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and His Maid' is the story of a gallant prisoner falsely accused, two girls who love him and an out-of-work itinerant jester. A comic jailer and a busy body old lady provide comic relief from the multiple tales of intrigue as the heroic prisoner narrowly escapes execution, woos the woman to whom he is already secretly wed and dashes the hopes of the jilted jester in the process. The most operatic of the Gilbert & Sullivan masterpieces, the score is full of grand and intimate moments - delicate, dramatic and sincerely moving by degrees. The only G&S collaboration set in an actual historic time and place, it nevertheless contains the wit and satire of human nature which define their art.