The Yeoman of the Guard

Empire Lyric Players, Denver’s premier Gilbert and Sullivan society since 1958, takes on one of the duo’s most ambitious works with The Yeomen of the Guard — the eleventh of their 14 collaborations and the one Sullivan often called his favorite. Set in and around the Tower of London in Tudor times, it’s the only G&S piece grounded in a realistic time and place, and it trades the usual topsy-turvy satire for something closer to grand opera.
The story follows Colonel Fairfax, falsely condemned to death for sorcery and awaiting execution in the Tower. As Sergeant Meryll and his children Phoebe and Leonard scheme to save him, strolling jester Jack Point and his singing partner Elsie Maynard arrive to entertain the crowds — and Elsie is offered a hundred crowns to marry the doomed Fairfax sight unseen. When Fairfax escapes the dungeon, the schemes collide with consequences both comic and devastating.
Sullivan’s score is among his richest, ranging from the patter songs fans expect to genuinely operatic ensembles, while Gilbert’s libretto leans into intrigue, heartbreak and unrequited love. ELPs, one of the longest-running G&S societies in the country, has previously mounted Yeomen in 1966, 1972, 1983, 2002 and 2012.