After the first night, Sullivan wrote in his diary: “I was awfully nervous and continued so until the duet ‘Heighdy’ which settled the fate of the opera. Its success was tremendous; 3 times encored! After that everything went on wheels, and I think its success is even greater than the Mikado.” He wasn’t quite right, as Yeomen ran for only 423 performances (Mikado had 672 during its first run), but the opera combines strong drama, merry wit, and fine music in a way that has appealed to audiences ever since.

Yeomen is set in the Tower of London in Shakespearean times. The plot concerns Colonel Fairfax, a gentleman, soldier and scientist, who has been sentenced to be beheaded in an hour on a false charge of sorcery. To avoid leaving his estate to his accuser (a cousin), and with the help of the Lieutenant of the Tower, Fairfax secretly marries Elsie Maynard, a strolling singer. The bride agrees to be blindfolded during the ceremony and expects to be a well-paid widow in an hour. With the help of the Meryll family, Fairfax escapes, throwing the Tower into confusion and the astonished Elsie (and her mentor, the jester Jack Point, who loves her) into despair. But Fairfax, disguised as Leonard Meryll, woos Elsie, and after a number of plot complications are worked out, she falls in love with Fairfax and leaves Jack Point broken-hearted.

Modified from an original by Samuel Silvers.

More information about the show in the G&S archive.

Our next
production will be“Yeomen
of the Guard”  18th–21st February 2009 at the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline