It’s a tricky time for English National Opera. Some commentators suggest that the company should leave its cherished home at the London Coliseum and relocate to somewhere smaller; others wonder if London even needs a second opera house: isn’t the Royal Opera House enough? If I ruled the world, I’d say, “No” to both suggestions, but more worrying is an imminent Arts Council England decision about ENO’s future grant prospects, which are far from rosy.
For now, at least, the show must go on, and when a show is needed, ENO often turns to Gilbert and Sullivan. The Yeomen of the Guard, premiered in 1888, now joins a long list of ENO productions dating back at least as far as Jonathan Miller’s celebrated 1985 staging of The Mikado. G&S liked an exotic setting and they put Yeomen in the 16th century, a conceit which cramps Gilbert’s verbal style, and that in turn inhibits Sullivan’s music.
