The Yeomen of the Guard at the Tower of London – what could be better? Or so I thought. Staged as part of the Tower Festival, Carl Rosa’s production was visually stunning, but unfortunately Sunday night’s performance disappointed on a number of levels.

First, setting the production just outside the tower walls, in what used to be the moat, resulted in a rather long, thin auditorium, with a temporary stage that was so tiny in comparison it was like looking at it through the wrong end of a telescope. Even with the use of sight screens, I felt completely disconnected from the performance. It didn’t help that the screens frequently failed to focus on the main action, so that much of the interplay between the players was also lost. Placing some of the action in front of the stage was a curious decision in the circumstances. A few technical hitches with the sound system didn’t help, either.

As Jack Point, former Just Good Friends star Paul Nicholas (pictured) showed an intelligent understanding of Gilbert’s wit, but his husky singing was barely adequate. David Curry sang well enough as Fairfax, but gave a rather uninspired performance, while Susan Gorton, as the formidable Dame Carruthers, was in good voice but had trouble remembering her words.

Happily, there were several G&S stalwarts in the cast to show them how it should be done. Charlotte Page gave a truly classy performance as Elsie Maynard, Victoria Byron sparkled as Phoebe, Bruce Graham brought his usual vocal warmth to Sgt Meryll, Donald Maxwell was a suitably loathsome Shadbolt and Gareth Jones an imposing Lieutenant.

It sounds idyllic performing Yeomen in its rightful setting, but unfortunately this didn’t quite work. Restaged in a theatre, though, it has the potential to be a first-class production.

The Tower Festival continues with a Classical Spectacular tomorrow, and Womad on Saturday and Sunday; visit www.towerfestival.com for details.