Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Trial by Jury

Donald Maxwell (Performer), Gareth Rhys-Davies (Performer), Peter Savidge (Performer), Arthur Sullivan (Composer), Charles Mackerras (Conductor), Felicity Palmer (Performer), Pamela Helen Stephen (Performer), Welsh National Opera Orchestra (Orchestra), Alwyn Mellor (Performer), Rebecca Evans (Performer), Barry Banks (Performer), Eric Garrett (Performer), Neill Archer (Performer), Richard Suart (Performer), Clare O'Neill (Performer), Donald Adams (Performer), John King (Performer), Peter Hoare (Performer), Peter Massocchi (Performer), Philip Lloyd Evans (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Donald Maxwell, Gareth Rhys-Davies, Peter Savidge, Felicity Palmer, Pamela Helen Stephen, et al.
• Orchestra: Welsh National Opera Orchestra
• Conductor: Charles Mackerras
• Composer: Arthur Sullivan
• Audio CD (October 24, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B000003D17
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,099 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Overture

2. When Maiden Loves

3. Tower Warders, Under Orders...This The Autumn Of Our Life

4. When Our Gallant Norman Foes

5. Alas! I Waver To And Fro

6. Is Life A Boon?

7. Here's A Man Of Jollity

8. I Have A Song To Sing, O!

9. How Say You, Maiden

10. I've Jibe And Joke, And Quip And Crank

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Night Has Spread Her Pall Once More

2. Oh, A Private Buffoon Is A Light-Hearted Loon

3. Hereupon We're Both Agreed

4. Free From His Fetters Grim

5. Strange Adventure

6. Hark, What Was That, Sir?

7. A Man Who Would Woo A Fair Maid

8. When A Wooer Goes A-Wooing

9. Rapture, Rapture

10. Comes The Pretty Young Bride

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Great Discs., November 1, 2001

By 

D. W. Casey (Sturbridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Trial by Jury (Audio CD)

This two disc set pairs two operas that are historically at very different periods in the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire. Trial by Jury is usually viewed as the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera (because Thespis was lost to history); Yeomen of the Guard is a later opera. One can only conclude that they are on the same disc because of space; Yeomen is not quite long enough for two complete discs, so the one act Trial by Jury is added in to fill the second disc.

Nevertheless, the operas are complementary because they are so different -- Yeomen of the Guard is generally considered the least satirical, most "realistic" G&S opera (if such a thing is even possible!), while Trial by Jury is perhaps the most farcical. So on one set of discs you get both extremes.

At any rate, Yeomen of the Guard is my personal favorite G&S opera, beating out even the Mikado, and this performance is outstanding in all respects. Richard Suart is in both operas, as the fool, Jack Point, in Yeomen, and as the Judge in Trial by Jury, and he does a superb job in both roles. He has the perfect clarity and diction one needs as a G&S performer, a great comic voice.

A great purchase for someone who has the more well known operas (the Mikado, Pinafore, Pirates) and who loves Gilbert and Sullivan. The Yeomen of the Guard has some of Sullivan's best music in it, G&S fans who have not heard it are often surprised how excellent it truly is.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilbert & Sullivan at its VERY best!, June 2, 2005

By 

Paul A. Gerard (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Trial by Jury (Audio CD)

"The Yeomen of the Guard" was the nearest thing G&S came to writing a "serious" opera. Sullivan was fed up with the typical "topsy-turvy" Gilbert plot - and for once got a (fairly) sensible one instead. No gimmicks (for once) - just a funny, romantic little play - with a hint of sentimental pathos.

From the lovely little "folk" duet "I have a song" - to the noble aria of courage and resignation in the face of death "Is life a boon" - both lyrics and music are of a the highest possible standard. This IS still "just" operetta - but it rates artistically with any grand opera I can think of offhand.

Sullivan tried hard, in his serious opera "Ivanhoe", to write "the" great English romantic opera. As someone said - his mistake was that he had already done so - in "Yeomen".

The performances on this recording are outstanding - avoiding the "comic" exaggeration the characterisation sometimes receives. More than in any other G&S operetta the characters are real people - and it is nice to have them played so straight - although very little of the spoken dialogue is included.

What we get instead of dialogue, or "bonus" recordings of deleted songs, is a perfect recording of G&S's very first successful collaboration - "Trial by Jury" - a little one act piece taking off English court procedure. It is, incidentally, technically NOT an operetta, as there is no spoken dialogue at all - unlike all later G&S, every word is sung!

Gilbert was called to the bar himself when young, and the humour is very apt - the bufoonery is none the less rather broad for a Victorian piece - in fact there is a good deal more sexual innuendo in this one than Gilbert ever allowed himself again. It was written as a curtain raiser for an Offenbach piece, which is probably how he got away with it here.

The highlights are the judge's song "When I, good friends, was called to the bar" the first and one of the best of G&S's "patter songs", and "You cannot eat breakfast all day" - a charming little hymn to male fickleness.

For any fan of G&S who has NOT heard "Trial by Jury" before, this is alone well worth the price of the album. With the very best available recording of Yeomen as well it is an absolute must.