"Oh misery me": The problems of "Yeomen of the Guard" are unsolved by Winter Opera

Contemporary Yeomen in period costume at the Tower of London

Gilbert and Sullivan operettas follow a fairly predictable format—so much so that Anna Russell once made it the basis for a sixteen-minute comedy routine on "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera." The one oddball in the G&S canon is "Yeomen of the Guard," a somewhat indifferent production of which opened Winter Opera's current season the weekend of October 30th.

"Yeomen" comes at a time in Gilbert and Sullivan's partnership when Sir Arthur Sullivan was beginning to see himself as a victim of his own success. Like his literary contemporary Arthur Conan Doyle, Sullivan felt that his popular works were overshadowing his more serious efforts. As Doyle would come to resent Sherlock Holmes, Sullivan was beginning to resent his comic collaborations with Gilbert. So when Gilbert proposed a more serious libretto, Sullivan jumped at the chance.

First performed in 1888, "Yeomen" wasn't a total departure from the familiar formula. There are disguises, complex plot reversals, and a fair amount of comedy. But the satirical jabs at British institutions are absent and the ending is, if not really tragic, at least unhappy. The result is an uneven mix of Gilbertian absurdity and unconvincing drama that never really works as either comedy or tragedy. Its appeal has always escaped me.

Set in the Tower of London in the 16th century, the story of "Yeomen" revolves around Colonel Fairfax, who is about to executed for sorcery on the basis of false testimony from an evil cousin who plans to inherit Fairfax's fortune if Fairfax dies unmarried. Fairfax offers 100 crowns to any woman who will marry him, sight unseen, and so cheat his cousin of his ill-gotten gains. Elsie Maynard, a young singer more or less betrothed to the jester Jack Point, takes him up on the offer in order to buy medicine for her ailing mother.

Unknown to Fairfax, his old friend Sergeant Meryll and daughter Phoebe have hatched a plot to save his life by disguising him as Meryll's son Leonard, newly arrived to take a position as one of the Tower guards (the "Yeomen" of the title). Once sprung from prison, Fairfax woos Phoebe and then, still disguised as Leonard, seduces Elsie while pretending to be helping Jack Point woo her.

By the end of the opera both Phoebe and her father are trapped in dreary marriages to (respectively) the loutish jailer Wilfred Shadbolt and the bloodthirsty Tower housekeeper Dame Carruthers as the price for keeping their plot secret. Fairfax claims Elsie and poor Jack Point falls senseless to the stage.

In short, no good deed goes unpunished and Fairfax, an ingrate if ever there was one, goes on his merry way.

The inadequacies of the libretto aside, Sullivan produced some wonderful music for "Yeomen," including an artfully constructed overture which was, alas, cut in half for this production. Most of the other optional cuts were apparently made as well, bringing the show in at under two and one-half hours, including intermission. Unfortunately, the slow pacing and static staging by director John Stephens made it feel longer.

As is often the case with Winter Opera, there were some truly fine voices in this cast, with mezzo Amy Maude Helfer leading the pack as a completely engaging Phoebe. She displayed a fluid, smooth voice and impressive acting skills. Soprano Eileen Vanessa Rodriguez was an excellent Elsie and bass James Harrington brought a welcome touch of dry humor to the role of Sergeant Meryll.

As Jack Point, baritone Andy Papas had the kind of rich, powerful voice that one doesn't often hear in the "principal actor" roles in Gilbert and Sullivan. He did well by Point's patter numbers, although he made the character a bit more querulous than I would have liked.

There were vocally strong performances as well from tenor Clark Sturdevant as Fairfax, contralto Sharmay Musacchio as a rather young-looking Dame Carruthers, and bass-baritone Adrian Rosas as the one historically based character, Tower Lieutenant Sir Richard Cholmondeley. Baritone Gary Moss sang well as Shadbolt and had some nice comic business, but insisted on delivering all his lines facing downstage, even when interacting with other characters, which simply looked bizarre.

The chorus was small but mighty; credit Chorus Master Nancy Mayo for that.

Scott Schoonover did his usual polished job conducting the orchestra, which generally did quite well by Sullivan's music, that annoying cut in the overture not withstanding. The fact that the Viragh Center has an actual orchestra pit also eliminated some of the balance problems you sometimes encounter in performance spaces that weren’t designed with musical theatre in mind.

Scott Loebl's set gave a nice sense of the Tower's imposing presence while still leaving lots of playing space available and JC Krajicek's costumes evoked the period quite effectively.

If "Yeomen of the Guard" was not, on the whole, one of Winter Opera's better efforts, the bulk of the blame must fall to Mr. Gilbert for producing a libretto that was neither fish nor fowl. "Yeomen of the Guard" is a problematic work, and this production didn't solve it.

Winter Opera's season continues with Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte" January 22 and 24 and concludes with Verdi's "Il Trovatore" March 4 and 6. There's also a festive "Holidays on the Hill" concert December 8 and 9 and Dominic's on the Hill. For more information: winteroperastl.org.

This review originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Review of Opera Theatre's "Pirates of Penzance"

The cast of Pirates of Penzance
Photo copyright Ken Howard, 2013

Time was when St. Louis Savoyards could expect an annual Christmas present from Opera Theatre in the form of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta presented at Washington University’s Edison Theatre. Alas, either the present proved too expensive or the school had other plans for the space. These days we have to be content with the occasional production as part of the regular season by Opera Theatre or one of our other local opera companies.

The Pirates of Penzance, the G and S classic that opens the current Opera Theatre season, was last produced as one of those Christmas presents in 1982. This new version, directed and choreographed by OTSL veteran Seán Curran, sometimes gilds the comic lily with excessive and occasionally distracting stage “busy-ness”, but on the whole it’s tremendous fun. The cast are all fine singers and actors, James Schuette’s colorful costumes and pop-up book set—complete with a gilt Victorian false proscenium and red velvet curtains—is a delight, and the orchestra under conductor Ryan McAdams sounds terrific.

The story of Pirates is so well known that you don’t need me to summarize it here. I’ll just note that it’s a typically Gilbertian mix of parody, paradox, and verbal wit that remains hilarious over 130 years after its simultaneous New York and London premieres (an arrangement made necessary by the requirements of British and American copyright law at the time).

Heading this first-rate cast are tenor Matthew Plenk as Frederic, the “slave of duty” of the opera’s subtitle, and soprano Deanna Breiwick (a fine Johanna in Sweeney Todd last season) as Major-General Stanley’s youngest daughter Mabel. Mr. Plenk’s robust voice is almost too big for the role—a fact that Mr. Curran uses for a great visual joke during “Oh, is there not one maiden breast”—but he makes it work. Ms. Breiwick’s seemingly effortless execution of the vocal filigree in “Poor wandering one”, meanwhile, demonstrates why the New York Times once called her a "vocal trapeze artist." And her comic acting skills are solid.


Bass Bradley Smoak once again demonstrates his own impressive vocal and comic abilities (previously only on display in OTSL’s Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro) as the Pirate King. Mezzo Maria Zifchak is equally fine as Ruth, “a pirate maid-of-all work.”

Bass-baritone Jason Eck is an excellent Sergeant of Police, although he seems not entirely comfortable with the very bottom notes in “When the felon’s not engaged.” Mezzos Jaime Korkos and Corrie Stallings and soprano Katrina Galka—all Gerdine Young Artists—all have moments to shine as Stanley daughters.

Baritone Hugh Russell, who was such a great Figaro in Barber of Seville seven years ago, shows the same vocal and acting skills in the “principal comedian” role of Major-General Stanley. He seemed to be having a bit of difficulty enunciating all the lyrics of "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" on opening night, but that’s a minor complaint.

Mr. Curran’s choreography, while not elaborate, makes all his performers look good—which is what great choreography should do. His direction is, as I mentioned before, sometimes a bit too busy for its own good but it mostly serves the material well. I will, however, confess to being annoyed that the overture was, for no discernable reason, cut in half. Sullivan’s overtures are mostly little gems, with Pirates being one of the best, and they deserve to be heard as intended. Just because Joseph Papp did it for his 1981 pop/rock adaptation of Pirates doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea.

Opera Theatre may not be presenting a perfect Pirates of Penzance, but it’s an awfully good one, my minor “quibble quaint” not withstanding. It’s well worth seeing and highly recommended. Performances continue through June 29th in rotating repertory with the rest of the OTSL season. For more information and schedules, experienceopera.org.

Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic for 88.1 KDHX, where this review originally appeared.

Review of Winter Opera's "The Mikado"

Katisha (Lindsey Anderson) fails to blow Nanki-Poo's (Isaiah Bell)
cover in the Act I finale of The Mikado

I have a friend who says he loves directing Shakespeare because it’s so easy to do. Just don’t get in the playwright’s way and you can’t lose. I think the same could be said of the better Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as well. Don’t mess with G&S and you’re golden.

Winter Opera’s Mikado (presented November 9 and 11 at the Skip Viragh Center on the Chaminade campus) does, unfortunately, mess with G&S from time to time. But the tinkering is infrequent enough and light enough to let the jolly good fun of Gilbert’s wit and Sullivan’s delightful score shine through. This wasn’t a great Mikado, but it was a very fine one. If you’re a dedicated Savoyard (like yours truly) I hope you didn’t miss it.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first. The cast was consistently strong, and some performances were downright outstanding. Mezzo Lindsey Anderson, for example, may be too pretty for Katisha (“a most unattractive old thing / With a caricature of a face”) but behind that stylized makeup you wouldn’t have known it, and she sang and acted the role beautifully. Granted, Katisha doesn’t do much, but it takes a good actress to make her (frankly) unnecessary Act II aria interesting. Ms. Anderson certainly did that. Soprano Kathleen Jasinskas was a comic charmer as Katisha’s nemesis, Yum-Yum, beloved of “wandering minstrel” and royal heir Nanki-Poo, sung with equal charm by tenor Isaiah Bell.

Baritone Lane Johnson had the Principal Comedian role of Ko-Ko, the “cheap tailor” raised to the exulted post of Lord High Executioner despite the fact that he literally wouldn't hurt a fly. He’s gotten rave reviews for previous performances of the part elsewhere, and it’s not hard to see why: a solid voice and impeccable comic timing. Bass-baritone Edward Hanlon was an engaging Pish-Tush, making this minor character more interesting than is sometimes the case. Director John Stephens (who also sang the role of the Mikado with great relish) gave him a little romantic subplot with Pitti-Sing (local mezzo Erin Haupt in another charmer of a performance). It wasn’t strictly Gilbertian, but it worked.

Baritone Gary Moss was presumably down at the bottom of his tessitura for in the bass role of the snobbish Poo-Bah, the Lord High Everything Else whose family pride is “something inconceivable”, but you’d not have known it from his singing. His performance involved a bit too much mugging and physical business for my taste—the big joke about Poo-Bah, after all, is his stolid pomposity—but it certainly went down well with the audience. It was also in sync with Mr. Stephens’s direction, which tended to bit too loaded with shtick at times, so I expect my real gripe was with him rather than Mr. Moss.

Then there’s the matter of the updated lyrics. It has been customary for many years now to replace Gilbert’s dated (and occasionally racist) topical jokes with contemporary equivalents, especially in Ko-Ko’s "As some day it may happen" and the Mikado’s "A more humane Mikado". Most of the revisions worked pretty well, with the Mikado’s song getting some especially clever revisions that left the bulk of the lyrics intact. There were a few too many political and sports jokes for me, but that’s just a matter of individual taste. They all went over well with the audience.

I also thought it was a shame that "See how the fates their gifts allot" got cut from Act II, but if you must cut something, that’s probably the best bet.

The chorus was smallish (eight men and eight women) but it sounded big, and elocution was good enough to make the projected English text unnecessary. The orchestra sounded impressive as well under conductor Michael Mishra, although his tempi were sometimes plodding. With smaller opera companies, the band sometimes suffers from anemic violins and sloppy winds, but there was none of that here. The fact that the Viragh Center has an actual orchestra pit also eliminated some of the balance problems you sometimes encounter in performance spaces that weren’t designed with musical theatre in mind.

In fact, the Viragh Center (on the Chaminade campus in Frontenac) might just be one of the best opera spaces in town. The stage is large and deep, sight lines are good, and the seating is comfortable. The move there has raised Winter Opera’s costs, but if they can manage to make this work they will be serious players on the local musical theatre scene.

The production looked as good as it sounded, with bright cartoonish sets from Scott Loebl, colorful Japanese costumes by JC Krajicek, and effective lighting by Sean Savoie.

So, while my rapture over this Mikado was somewhat modified, there’s no denying it was an entertaining piece of work and very welcome in a town that doesn’t see many Gilbert and Sullivan productions since Opera Theatre dropped their annual G&S show at the Edison Theatre many years ago. Winter Opera’s season continues with Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe (a work I haven’t seen in decades) in February and Puccini’s Tosca in March. There’s also a Holidays on the Hill program in December at Dominic’s Restaurant on (naturally) The Hill. For more information: winteroperastl.org.

Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic for 88.1 KDHX, where this review originally appeared.