Radio Times: Review by:; David Gillard

The Yeomen of the Guard divides opinion, among even the most devoted Savoyards. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote comic operettas, didn’t they? Yet this Tower of London romance — though full of typically Gilbertian puns, quips and capers — has a darkly ambivalent ending and an undoubtedly tragic figure in the broken-hearted, love-sick jester, Jack Point. He, of course, has a famous Song to Sing,O! and Sullivan’s score contains some of his most emotionally charged music.

Perhaps he was partially heeding the advice of his most distinguished fan, Queen Victoria, who had recently urged him: “You ought to write a Grand Opera, Sir Arthur.” Jane Glover conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Concert Orchestra and a starry cast, including soprano Lisa Milne, in the first complete performance at the Proms of the penultimate operetta in the G and S canon.

About this programme

Another chance to hear the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Jane Glover, join a cast of soloists to perform Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard, from London's Royal Albert Hall. Presented by Catherine Bott. Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard. Lisa Milne (soprano: Elsie Maynard), Andrew Kennedy (tenor: Colonel Fairfax), Mark Stone (baritone: Jack Point), Felicity Palmer (mezzo: Dame Carruthers), Mark Richardson (baritone: Sergeant Meryll), Toby Stafford-Allen (bass: Wilfred Shadbolt), Victoria Simmonds (mezzo: Phoebe Meryll), Leigh Melrose (bass-baritone: Lieutenant Sir Richard Cholmondeley), Tom Randle (tenor: Leonard Meryll), Mary Bevan (soprano: Kate), Jonathan McGovern (baritone: First Yeoman), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone: Second Yeoman), director Martin Duncan, BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Jane Glover.