
When Richard D’Oyly Carte was the acting theatre manager at the Royalty Theatre, London, he asked Gilbert and Sullivan to collaborate on a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach’s comic opera, La Périchole. In March 1875 Trial by Jury opened at that same theatre, and the witty, tuneful and very ‘English’ piece was an immediate hit with the part of the judge being played by Fred Sullivan, the composer’s brother.
The opera continued to find favour with the theatre-going public running for two stints at the Royalty that year as well as at the Opéra Comique in 1876 and at the Royal Strand Theatre in 1877 bringing the total number of performances in its first two years to nearly 300.
It is quite short, only forty minutes, and is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera that contains no spoken dialogue. Many people consider it to be the most perfectly constructed of all of their operas and it is indeed a little gem. The absurdities that can come from a breach of promise, when the sensibilities of the jury and the judge are affected, was just the sort of subject to inspire Gilbert, and the libretto he produced in turn inspired Sullivan to write some of his most sparkling music.
Synopsis
Set in a Court of Justice the scene unfolds with Angelina sueing her former fiancé, Edwin, for falling in love with another woman. Overcome by emotion she manages to capture the hearts of the ‘impartial’ jury to which end, the fickle Edwin proposes that to resolve the issue he should “marry this lady today and the other tomorrow”. Unsurprisingly, Angelina and the jury object.
Synopsis
Faced with potentially having to pay substantial damages, Edwin claims to be a drunkard and bully with little financial means which leads the Judge to suggest that they make him drunk so they can observe his behaviour towards Angelina! This time it’s Edwin’s turn to object and, in a final effort to bring the trial to a conclusion, the Judge declares he will marry Angelina himself which seems to suit everyone. Case closed!
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