Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard

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Music reviews of Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard

Music Review: Strangely cut but of historical value
Rating: 4 Stars

This particular Naxos set (8.110293-94) sits on two CDs, the first holding Act I and the second Act II with 9 wonderful little G&S-for-orchestra selections from 1935. "The Yeomen of the Guard" itself is (as all in the series were back then) without dialogue and it is not quite musically complete. It is missing the comic duet "Rapture, rapture" in Act II and two stanzas from the Act I finale, for no better reason than that the D'Oyly Carte Company had dropped them from its productions back then. What a shame.

The cast is adequate to quite good. Green is outstanding as a morose Jack Point who (on the stage at least) actually dies at the end. The bottomless basso of Richard Watson is just right for the idiotic Shadbolt, but the gorgeous mezzo of Ann Drummond-Grant is a bit too mature-sounding for "little Phoebe." Tenor Leonard Osborn has his usual vocal troubles and should have yielded to the then upcoming tenor Neville Griffiths, who here has the tiny role of Leonard Meryll.

D'Oyly Carte veteran Darrel Fancourt's voice had become a little leathery, but his Sgt. Meryll is full of character, making the loss of the duet even more unforgivable.

So this is really for G&S addicts, for whom this is of great historical interest, and for groups who plan to do "Yeomen" and want a good idea of the traditional delivery.

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