The Yeomen of the Guard

The Yeomen of the Guard is a comic opera (a "Savoy Opera") by W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911)[1] and Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)[2]

The full title was The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and His Maid, but the opera is usually referred to simply as The Yeomen of the Guard or more succinctly even, Yeomen of the Guard. In addition, it is sometimes mistakenly written in the singular as the "The Yeoman of the Guard".

The original text

The opera premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1890: Performed in the Exhibition Theatre, Cape Town in January by the Edgar Perkins Lyric Opera Company managed and directed by Edgar Perkins. The company included R.S. Gregg, E. le Hay, Dennis Coyne, Frank Wheeler, Harry Miller, Ada Bemister, Carrie Nelson, Harriet Wood, and Ella Bankhardt. Musical direction was by James Hyde.

1895: Performed in the Port Elizabeth Opera House to provide entertainment for the members of the visiting MCC players.

circa 1900: Performed by Amos Bailey and the Woodstock Amateur Operatic Society, Cape Town, in their newly contructed school hall as one of their Gilbert and Sullivan productions.

1902-3: Performed in South Africa by the visiting D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as part of their repertoire of Gilbert and Sullivan works, presented over the course of two seasons.

1934: Staged by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1940: Staged by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1947: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1950: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1953: Staged by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1954: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1959: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1971: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1974: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1980: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1988: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1997: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

2012: Staged by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yeomen_of_the_Guard

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 389-390, 410-411, 423-4

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