Director's Notes

 

Welcome to the North Shore Light Opera Society production of The Yeomen Of The Guard! Premiered 123 years ago, Yeomen is the eleventh of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations. It follows the comic melodrama Ruddigore both in order of composition and in order of recent productions by NSLOS, though that is nothing but coincidence.

 

Back in 1888, composer Arthur Sullivan had spent years listening carefully to those friends of his who insisted he was wasting his talents by writing witty and charming comic theatre pieces that would still be produced in a century's time. Instead, it seems he wanted to write a Grand Opera, which he would eventually do - Ivanhoe - which is very, very boring and nobody ever produces. So when it came time for a new G&S production, he insisted that master comedian Gilbert create a more serious story, something for which Gilbert had very little skill or ability.

 

And thus, The Yeomen Of The Guard, wherein two masters of the stage decide to stop doing the things which made them global celebrities and beloved theatrical stars, and instead do 'what they ought to be doing', which apparently turns out to be a serious-ish story with comedy peeking through the substantial cracks in plot and motivation. Not many companies do Yeomen any more. However, we have, and we hope you enjoy it!

Matthew Bissett