The Yeomen of the Guard

The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and His Maid is Gilbert and Sullivan’s sparkling comic opera set in Shakespearean times during the reign of King Henry VIII. It is the darkest and most emotionally engaging of the Savoy Operas. The show takes place in the Tower of London where the gentleman Colonel Fairfax is wrongly accused of sorcery and sentenced to death within the hour. Fairfax hatches a plan to avoid letting his estate fall into the hands of his scheming cousin (incidentally, his accuser) by secretly marrying Elsie Maynard, a strolling singer. She agrees to be blindfolded during the ceremony and expects to be a wealthy widow upon Fairfax's imminent demise, leaving her free to marry her lover, the jester Jack Point. However, Fairfax miraculously escapes his fate and chaos ensues. Following his escape, Fairfax woos Elsie, and after a number of plot complications are resolved, she falls in love with him.

Act I

1. "When maiden loves, she sits and sighs" (Phœbe) 1a. "When jealous torments rack my soul" (Wilfred) – see "Cut music"
2. "Tower warders, under orders" (Crowd and Yeomen, solo Second Yeoman)
3. "When our gallant Norman foes" (Dame Carruthers and Yeomen) 3a. "A laughing boy but yesterday" (Meryll); – see "Cut music"
4. "Alas! I waver to and fro" (Phœbe, Leonard and Meryll)
5. "Is life a boon?" (Fairfax)
6. "Here's a man of jollity" (Chorus)
7. "I have a song to sing, O!" (or, "The Merryman and his Maid") (Point, Elsie, and chorus)
8. "How say you, maiden, will you wed?" (Lieutenant, Elsie, Point)
9. "I've jibe and joke" (Point)
10. "'Tis done! I am a bride!" (Elsie)
11. "Were I thy bride" (Phœbe)
12. Finale Act I (Ensemble) "Oh, Sergeant Meryll, is it true?" "To thy fraternal care, thy sister I commend" "The pris'ner comes to meet his doom" "M'lord, m'lord.... As escort for the prisoner" "All frenzied, frenzied with despair they rave"

Act II

1. "Night has spread her pall once more" (People, Dame Carruthers, Yeomen)
2. "Oh! a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon" (Point)
3. "Hereupon we're both agreed" (Point and Wilfred)
4. "Free from his fetters grim" (Fairfax)
5. "Strange adventure" (Kate, Dame Carruthers, Fairfax, Meryll)
6. "Hark! What was that, sir?" ... "Like a ghost his vigil keeping" (Meryll, Fairfax, Lieutenant, Wilfred, Point, Ensemble)
7. "A man who would woo a fair maid" (Fairfax, Elsie, Phœbe)
8. "When a wooer goes a-wooing" (Elsie, Fairfax, Phœbe, Point)
9. "Rapture, rapture" (Dame Carruthers, Sergeant Meryll)
10. Finale Act II (Ensemble) "Comes the pretty young bride" "Oh, day of terror!" "Leonard, my loved one, come to me" "I have a song to sing, O!"