The Yeomen of the Guard

The Yeomen of the Guard is an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, it was premiered on October 3, 1888 at the Savoy Theatre. Although there is indeed the Yeomen of the Guard as a unit, the opera is set among the Yeomen Warders.

The action takes place in the Tower of London in the reign of Henry VIII main character is the scientist and alchemist Colonel Fairfax, who is to be executed in the Tower. To his execution and escape ensues a game of love, romance and deception, at the end all the characters survive and two questionable marriages are made,

Although it contains many puns and humor, The Yeomen of the Guard is the darkest and most emotional opera by Gilbert and Sullivan. She is considered one of the best and deepened works by Arthur Sullivan and is the only opera of the two without a happy ending. The language that the characters speak and sing, is not a contemporary Victorian English, but a historicizing pseudo - Shakespearean English.

Action

The main character is Colonel Fairfax, who has been detained on false charges of his cousin in the Tower and to be executed. Should Fairfax die unmarried, the cousin would inherit his entire fortune. The Yeomen Warder ( in the piece: Yeoman of the Guard ) Sergeant Meryll and his daughter Phoebe Fairfax try to help. Phoebe is in love from afar in Fairfax: Fairfax try from the cell to liberate and output it as Phoebe's brother Leonard, who was to take up a position as a Yeoman of the Guard. At the same time leaves Fairfax marry with help from the Lieutenant of the Tower with the passing singer Elsie Maynard to bring his brother 's legacy. Maynard, who is already engaged to fool Jack Point, can be attributed to the trade only, since it is assured that her husband will live only a few days. A few minutes after the marriage succeed and escape cover. After longer intricacies of plot is resolved and Fairfax can remain live. The marriage with Maynard persists, however, after which point expires from disappointed love in madness. The Fairfax fell in love with Phoebe marries the chief jailer and torturer Deputy Wilfred Shabolt to secure his silence on Fairfax illegal escape and escape helpers.

Music

Sullivan had already turned away before the emergence of the Yeomen of the comical and entertaining Savoy operas since 1882 and began to work as a composer of classical more serious operas. Gilbert had to persuade him only to further cooperation for the Yeomen. Sullivan now different approach is in the Yeomen clearly audible. For example, the overture no potpourri of pieces from hits in the opera, but a separate sonata. Musically the opera is much more diverse and varied than older operas of Gilbert and Sullivan while Sullivan manages simultaneously to weave the often disparate acting accumulation of individual hits into one continuous pieces with inner connection. The grim, dark atmosphere, which is in England associated with the Tower, pervades the opera from the first to the last bar. Similarly, Sullivan used the first time a larger orchestra, where he was to remain faithful for the rest of his career. He downgraded the Yeomen as the best of all his Savoy operas.

Formation

According to Gilbert, he had the idea for the opera when he saw one Announce that was decorated with a Yeomen Warder. Critics pointed but early on similarities to many other works out, especially in a very similar plot plays to The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy in front of a historicist background. Similar images can be found but in earlier poems, Gilbert or in the best-selling novel The Tower of London, A Historical Romance by William Harrison Ainsworth.

Comments

• Operetta of the 19th century
• Opera by Arthur Sullivan
• Operetta by Title
• Music 1888