The Yeomen of the Guard

March 6 to 29, 2026

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Yeomen of the Guard, for four weekends, from March 6 through March 29, 2026.

The Yeomen of the Guard is set in the Tower of London during the reign of King Henry VIII. The plot concerns Colonel Fairfax, a gentleman, soldier and scientist, who has been sentenced to be beheaded in an hour on a false charge of sorcery. To avoid leaving his estate to his accuser, and with the help of the Lieutenant of the Tower, Fairfax secretly marries Elsie Maynard, a strolling singer. The bride agrees to be blindfolded during the ceremony and expects to be a well-paid widow in an hour. With the help of the Meryll family, Fairfax escapes, throwing the Tower into confusion and the astonished Elsie and Jack Point, a jester who loves her, into despair. But Fairfax, disguised as Leonard Meryll, woos Elsie, and after a number of plot complications are worked out, she unknowingly falls in love with her husband, but leaves Jack Point broken-hearted.

The Yeomen of the Guard has been described as Gilbert and Sullivan’s most emotionally engaging operetta, more serious in character, with none of Gilbert’s typical satire of British institutions. While the libretto does contain considerable humor, Gilbert’s trademark satire and topsy-turvy plot complications are subdued in comparison with the other Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Musically, the operetta is considered to be one of Sullivan’s finest, most musically ambitious.

The Pirates of Penzance

October 30 – November 22, 2026

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Pirates of Penzance, for four weekends, from October 30 to November 22, 2026.

One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operettas, The Pirates of Penzance tells the story of Frederic, who was apprenticed, as a child, to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse who, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master’s instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Frederic, upon completing his 21st year, rejoices that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to respectable society. It turns out, however, that he was born on February 29th in leap year, and he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday. By the end of the opera, the pirates, a Major General who knows nothing of military strategy, his large family of beautiful, but unwed daughters, and the timid constabulary all contribute to a cacophony that can be silenced only by Queen Victoria’s name.

The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fifth collaboration, following their extraordinarily successful production of H.M.S. Pinafore. The Pirates of Penzance opened simultaneously in England and America. The opera premiered on December 31, 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with Sullivan conducting, but a single performance had been given on the previous day at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, England, to secure the British copyright. Finally, the opera opened on April 3, 1880, at the Opéra Comique in London, where it ran for 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for over three months in New York.

The Grand Duke

February 26 – March 21, 2027

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Grand Duke, for four weekends, from February 26 to March 21, 2027

The Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan’s final collaboration, tells the delightful story of a theater company plotting to take political power in the Duchy of Phennig Halbphennig. The plot hinges on the misinterpretation of a law regarding “statutory duels,” which are fought with playing cards and result in “legal deaths.” Ludwig, the company’s comedian, spearheads the rebellion against the miserly Grand Duke Rudolph, takes power and, on the way, becomes engaged to four different women. The story features sausage rolls, theater contracts, ghosts, large bottles of champagne and a game or two of roulette!

In The Grand Duke, Gilbert lampoons the frugality and phoniness of the wealthy classes and nobility, while also taking aim at governmental leaders with some particularly pointed political satire. Sullivan’s beautifully varied score includes lilting Viennese waltz music as well as Offenbach inspired French melodies.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is particularly pleased to present its own revised version of The Grand Duke. While this operetta is considered one of the most challenging of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas to stage, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera has presented its revised version three times in the past very successfully, to appreciative audiences who’ve wondered why The Grand Duke is not presented more often. We believe that the audiences for our 2027 production will say the same!

All performances will be at the Conn Theater, at Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 pm. The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm.

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