Vivacity, humour & pathos: Opera Holland Park & Charles Court Opera in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – Stephen Gadd – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; William Morgan, Matthew Kellett, Llio Evans, Ellie Laugharne, Samantha Price, Stephen Gadd, Amy J PAyne, John Savournin, Jack Roberts, Darren Jeffrey, director: John Savournin, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: David Eaton; Opera Holland Park in collaboration with Charles Court Opera
Reviewed 7 August 2024

Gilbert & Sullivan’s more serious opera in a production that balances vivacity, humour and pathos whilst filling the theatre with colour and movement

W.S. Gilbert’s librettos for Arthur Sullivan tend to be rather complex mechanisms that do not lend themselves to too much radical reinvention, and most productions content themselves with tweaking the era and the setting. The Yeomen of the Guard, one of their finest collaborations, is one opera that rather resists much tinkering, the entire plot focused on the Tower and its influence. Neither of the recent productions, at ENO [see my review] and the Grange Festival [see my review], was in any way radical though both adjusted and modernised the setting.

For his production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard at Opera Holland Park, director John Savournin chose to return the work to its Victorian roots. The production, which opened on Wednesday 7 August 2024, was the fourth collaboration between Opera Holland Park and Charles Court Opera, and featured designs by Alyson Cummins which placed the setting firmly in a Victorian view of Tudor England, and Cummins’ set made it clear that we were in a Victorian theatre. This gave scope for Savournin to keep Gilbert’s cod-Tudor dialogue (which is often modernised).

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – John Savournin, Matthew Kellett – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

David Eaton conducted the City of London Sinfonia with William Morgan as Colonel Fairfax, Matthew Kellett as Jack Point, Llio Evans as Elsie Maynard (though illness meant that the role was sung from the pit by Ellie Laugharne), Samantha Price as Phoebe, Stephen Gadd as Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Amy J Payne as Dame Carruthers, John Savournin as William Shadbolt, Jack Roberts as Leonard Meryll and Darren Jeffrey as Sergeant Meryll.

During the overture (written by Sullivan himself and more complex than the usual pot-pourri of tunes) we saw Gilbert writing the opera with the various characters appearing, and Gilbert would make appearances during the opera, though perhaps more could have been made of this idea.

The forestage featured footlights, and Savournin’s production made excellent use of Opera Holland Park’s tricky stage layout, ensuring that the important moments were well forward and using the forestage to separate characters out. The Opera Holland Park chorus, with eight women and twelve men, meant that we had a decent number of Yeomen Warders, and whilst this was not the most lavish of stagings it used resources very effectively, and the clarity of Savournin’s direction meant that all the major characters were projected succinctly yet strongly.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – Llio Evans – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

The Yeomen of the Guard is not consciously funny in the way other G&S works can be, nor is the satire strong, whilst Gilbert’s topsy-turvy-dom is perhaps at its subtlest. But there is a vein of humour, and Savournin kept this in mind when mixing in the more sober elements, so that towards the end when Darren Jeffery’s Sergeant Meryll was forced to propose to Amy J Payne’s Dame Carruthers, Payne’s delightful smirk of satisfaction was pure joy.

In fact, the opera’s pairings are remarkably sober things. Samantha Price’s Phoebe is also forced to admit John Savournin’s Shadbolt in marriage, whilst the opera’s central joyful pairing of Colonel Fairfax (William Morgan) and Elsie Maynard (Llio Evans/Ellie Laugharne) is marred by the fact that we know Fairfax to be a horrible flirt, and his treatment of Elsie at the end is perfectly horrible making her acquiesce to the marriage whilst thinking she is giving up Leonard (in fact Fairfax in disguise). But then Gilbert does not seem to have had a sanguine view of marriage and Robert Thicknesse’s article in the programme booklet highlights how commentators have recently been reconsidering Gilbert’s older women characters, seeing his creations in a more positive light.

Matthew Kellett’s Jack Point was a highly physical creation, with an energy that verged on the manic as Kellett emphasised Jack’s desperation, and we never really do witness Jack being genuinely funny. I have a song to sing, O had a touching melancholy to it from the beginning, which of course returned when Jack sings it at the very end, and here Kellett did tug heart strings. For the rest, he projected Jack’s over eagerness and badly hidden desperation.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – Amy J Payne – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

Llio Evans made a charming Elsie Maynard, her performance genuinely bringing out the character’s innocence. Evans and Ellie Laugharne did miracles of synchronicity in their double performance, particularly in the dialogue, and for large chunks of the evening we were able to forget the Laugharne was in fact in the pit.

Samantha Price’s Phoebe also had an element of desperation to her, when we first meet her she is in love with a man she has never met (Fairfax) and her only viable suitor is the cadaverous Shadbolt (Savournin). Price made Phoebe flirtatious and physical (particularly with Morgan’s Fairfax as Leonard) but kept the vein of seriousness too, a sober balance to Elsie’s innocence. Savournin played Shadbolt’s dark humour to the hilt, also making the man slightly dim, yet this was subtle too and by the end you rather felt sorry for him, certainly Price’s Phoebe would be wearing the trousers in the relationship.

William Morgan nicely brought out the different aspects of Fairfax’s character. He is somewhat underdrawn, but Morgan differentiated between the noble Lord, as depicted at the opening (as prisoner) and closing (as rather stiff-faced bridegroom), and the more revealing moments when he was disguised as Leonard and thus able to give free rein to his flirtatiousness, managing to make a serious impact on two different women in two days! Not bad going.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – Darren Jeffrey – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

Amy J Payne’s Dame Carruthers was very conscious of her dignity, a performance that was funny without ever sending the character up, and Payne relished both of Carruthers’ solos giving the character musical satisfaction too. Stephen Gadd was luxury casting as Sir Richard Cholmondeley and Gadd played him with nice humour, and a vein of self-importance.

Darren Jeffery was a warmly humorous Sergeant Meryll to match his being suitab ly physically imposing, whilst Jack Roberts made as much impact as he could in the small, but important, role of Leonard Meryll. Natasha Agarwal popped up as a characterful Kate, Dame Carruthers’ niece. The four stand-out roles from the chorus were well-taken by Christopher Killerby, Alistair Sutherland, Benjamin Newhouse-Smith and Stuart McDermott.

The Opera Holland Park chorus was on its usual form. There is far less dancing required in this opera than some G&S, but this was a still a vividly energetic production with the chorus managing to fill stage and auditorium. In the pit, David Eaton conducted a slimline City of London Sinfonia (the production used a reduced orchestration with single woodwind) and relished the litheness that this produced, turning in a performance that was vivid and vivacious.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – Llio Evans – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

In fact, there was a vivacity to the whole performance that enlivened the opera and ensured that it did not become too maudlin, yet there was a fair share of touching moments too.