Review: YEOMEN OF THE GUARD, Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park close out another acclaimed season with a rollicking Yeomen Of The Guard.

Directed by and starring John Savournin as lovelorn jailer Wilfred Shadbolt, this is a more traditional approach than Jo Davies’ misfire at the ENO in 2022. While that latter version time-shifted the plot to the 1950s, he digs into its original 16th-century setting with gusto.

Although it has many commendable qualities, not least a stirring score, Yeomen will never be on the podium when it comes to Gilbert & Sullivan’s finest works. For his Western-themed Barber of Seville for Charles Court Opera, Savournin ably showed how an updated text can work wonders; here, he struggles to inject life into a slow beginning. The tedious padding out of the first half may have been one reason why some press night audience members failed to return after the interval. When it finally reaches escape velocity, though, this musical flies like an arrow towards a final scene that is both shocking and the perfect antidote to the saccharine ending.

Another factor that divides audiences is the dark tone from the off. Colonel Fairfax has been unfairly charged as a sorcerer and, in an hour, faces execution by beheading. Imprisoned in the Tower of London, his jailers include Shadbolt, a man who revels in the nastier aspects of his job, and Sergeant Meryll (Darren Jeffery) who once served under Fairfax. Unlikely shenanigans ensue and before long our hero has both married and escaped, only to hide in plain sight as Meryll’s son. Indeed, there are more plotholes than plot but love (mostly) wins out.

This unique venue comes with its own characteristics, some of which are deliberately or incidentally reflected in what we see and hear. The sun goes down as Jack Wiltshire’s lighting design turns from the luminous to the crepuscular and, as Fairfax’s time draws nigh, the weather outside batters on the roof to add a macabre undertone to David Eaton’s conducting.

The stage itself is more Polo mint than proscenium and allows Savournin to deliver some sweeping dynamic directing. The venue’s notorious sound issues return from time to time with mics dropping out occasionally but with little overall effect. Illness meant that, while Llio Evans played the part of Elsie on stage, the role was beautifully sung by Ellie Laugharne from the pit.

As the central character of jester Jack Point, baritone Matthew Kellet is an inspired choice. It’s a difficult role that requires someone who can joke and jape with the best of them but also move an audience not just with the songs but purely through acting too. Kellett excels in all regards with a portrayal that brings out the contrast between his deep love for Evans’ Elsie and the cotton candy infatuations and opportune lusting elsewhere. When in the night’s last moments he sees that Elsie is lost to him forever, he takes out a vial of poison. A swallow, a grimace, a fall, a spasm then nothing more as the lights go down. 

It’s a divisive scene to be sure: Gilbert’s biographer Henry Lytton claims that he was told by his subject that "Point should die, and the end of the opera should be tragedy" while another account suggests that George Grossmith (who originated the role) would waggle his toes to indicate that he was not dead.  The curtain metaphorically drops on this sombre scene and, possibly due to a cross-wind coming in from the darkened park outside, a chill goes down the spine. While this Yeomen hasn't leapt over the high bar set by the opening production, I’m already looking forward to what comes our way from OHP next year.

Yeomen Of The Guard continues at Opera Holland Park until 10 August.

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz

 

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