The Yeomen of the Guard

Gilbert & Sullivan's topsy-turvy operetta 'The Yeomen of the Guard or The Merryman and his Maid' is given in a concert performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra under John Wilson, with soloists. Set in the sixteenth century at the Tower of London, it is the darkest and most emotionally engaging of the Savoy Operas, notable for the marked absence of their characteristic satires of British institutions and concluding with a broken-hearted protagonist and two very reluctant engagements rather than the more usual happy ending.