Pocket rocket Elsie lights up the Coliseum

The Yeomen Of The Guard London Coliseum Until December 2 ★★★★★

Among English National Opera’s many self-inflicted problems has been a consistent failure to put on productions of standard repertory capable of being regularly revived. Happily, a great exception to that has been their Gilbert & Sullivan stuff.

At first it looked as though Jo Davies’s take on The Yeomen Of

The Guard was going to break this chain of consistent success.

It’s an awful idea to have the overture partially drowned out by some caricature newsreel complete with absurd English accent, telling us why Colonel Fairfax was under sentence of death.

Sullivan, a celebrated last-minute man, often delegated the overtures to one of his pupils. But not this one, one of his very best. To have to listen to it under these circumstances was plain stupid. Yet another example of opera directors sometimes showing precious little respect for the music of the operas they direct.

But, things improved. So that much of the rest of Act I was an effective presentation of the tragedy of the jester Jack Point, and all of Act II was thoroughly entertaining as the experienced designer Anthony

Ward stepped forward to create memorable images like the opening, a revolving view of the White Tower.

From that point on, Davies showed real judgment, making the most of the comedy, but recognising that Yeomen is a tragedy and therefore a lot of the visual gags so prevalent in earlier G&S escapades at the Coliseum would not be appropriate.

Sharing the honours with Ward is the conductor Chris Hopkins, who is on his fourth ENO G&S, and conducted with real understanding of Sullivan’s idiom. The chorus and, as always, the orchestra, were excellent, providing a secure base to allow the soloists, none of them real stars, to come out of their shells.

Especially the young Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens as Elsie (right). A real pocket rocket, this one: she filled the Coliseum with some thrilling singing.

ENO veteran Susan Bickley

(Dame Carruthers) and Neal Davies (Sergeant Meryll, far right) were commendably reliable throughout. And another promising young singer, Anthony Gregory, made a fine fist of Colonel Fairfax. Perhaps only Richard McCabe as Jack Point disappointed. Not his fault. He’s an actor, and a good one, not a singer, and certainly not a patter merchant of the kind that Gilbert would have expected, and that the role requires.

Apparently his Point was based on a known 1950s comedian. And very credible it was too, because they weren’t very funny either.