Trial by Jury - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Trial by Jury is a comic opera

Comic opera

Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...

in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...

and libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

by W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...

. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Royalty Theatre

Royalty Theatre

The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...

, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....

's La Périchole

La Périchole

La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...

. The story concerns a "breach of promise

Breach of promise

Breach of promise is a former common law tort.From at least medieval times until the early 20th century, a man's promise of engagement to marry a woman was considered, in many jurisdictions, a legally binding contract...

of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868.

The opera premiered more than three years after Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

's only previous collaboration, Thespis

Thespis (opera)

Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an operatic extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost...

, an 1871–72 Christmas season entertainment. In the intervening years, both the author and composer were busy with separate projects. Beginning in 1873, Gilbert tried several times to get the opera produced before the impresario

Impresario

An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...

Richard D'Oyly Carte

Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...

suggested that he collaborate on it with Sullivan. Sullivan was pleased with the piece and promptly wrote the music.

As with most Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the plot of Trial by Jury is ludicrous, but the characters behave as if the events were perfectly reasonable. This narrative technique blunts some of the pointed barbs aimed at hypocrisy, especially of those in authority, and the sometimes base motives of supposedly respectable people and institutions. These themes became favourites of Gilbert through the rest of his collaborations with Sullivan. Critics and audiences praised how well Sullivan's witty and good-humoured music complemented Gilbert's satire. The success of Trial by Jury launched the famous series of 13 collaborative works between Gilbert and Sullivan that came to be known as the Savoy Operas

Savoy opera

The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...

.

After its original production in 1875, Trial by Jury toured widely in Britain and elsewhere and was frequently revived and recorded. It also became popular as a part of charity benefits. The work continues to be frequently played, especially as a companion piece to other short Gilbert and Sullivan operas or other works. According to theatre scholar Kurt Gänzl, it is "probably the most successful British one-act operetta of all time".

Background

Before Trial by Jury, W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert

and Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan

had collaborated on one previous opera, Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old

Thespis (opera)

, in 1871. Although reasonably successful, it was a Christmas entertainment, and such works were not expected to endure. Between Thespis and Trial by Jury, Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

did not collaborate on any further operas, and each man separately produced works that further built his reputation in his own field. Gilbert wrote several short stories, edited the second volume of his comic Bab Ballads

Bab Ballads

The Bab Ballads are a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert, illustrated with his own comic drawings. Gilbert wrote the Ballads before he became famous for his comic opera librettos with Arthur Sullivan...

, and created a dozen theatrical works, including Happy Arcadia

Happy Arcadia

Happy Arcadia is a musical entertainment with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music originally by Frederic Clay that premiered on 28 October 1872 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. It was one of four collaborations between Gilbert and Clay between 1869 and 1876. The music is lost...

in 1872; The Wicked World

The Wicked World

The Wicked World is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 1873 and ran for a successful 145 performances, closing on 1873...

, The Happy Land

The Happy Land

The Happy Land is a play with music written in 1873 by W. S. Gilbert and Gilbert Arthur à Beckett. The musical play burlesques Gilbert's earlier play, The Wicked World...

and The Realm of Joy

The Realm of Joy

The Realm of Joy is a one-act farce by W. S. Gilbert, writing under the pseudonym "F. Latour Tomline". It opened at the Royalty Theatre on 18 October 1873, running for about 113 performances, until 27 February 1874....

in 1873; Charity

Charity (play)

Charity is a drama in four acts by W. S. Gilbert that explores the issue of a woman who had lived with a man as his wife without ever having married. The play analyses and critiques the double standard in the Victorian era concerning the treatment of men and women who had sex outside of marriage,...

, Topsyturveydom

Topsyturveydom

Topsyturveydom is a one-act operetta by W. S. Gilbert with music by Alfred Cellier. Styled "an entirely original musical extravaganza", it is based on one of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, "My Dream". It opened on 21 March 1874 at the Criterion Theatre in London and ran until 17 April, for about 25...

and Sweethearts

Sweethearts (play)

Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.It was first produced on...

in 1874. At the same time, Sullivan wrote various pieces of religious music, including the Festival Te Deum

Festival Te Deum

The Festival Te Deum is the popular name for an 1872 composition by Arthur Sullivan, written to celebrate the recovery of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales from typhoid fever...

(1872) and an oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

, The Light of the World

The Light of the World (Sullivan)

The Light of the World is an oratorio composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the libretto with the assistance of George Grove, based on the New Testament. The story of the oratorio narrates the whole life of Christ, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet...

(1873), and edited Church Hymns, with Tunes (1874), which included 45 of his own hymns and arrangements. Two of his most famous hymn tunes from this period are settings to "Onward, Christian Soldiers

Onward, Christian Soldiers

"Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St. Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Ernest Clay Ker Seymer, at whose country home he composed...

" and "Nearer, my God, to Thee

Nearer, My God, to Thee

"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, based loosely on Genesis 28:11–19, the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the...

" (both in 1872). He also wrote a suite of incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

to The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...

(1874) and many parlour ballads and other songs, including three in 1874–75 with words by Gilbert: "The Distant Shore", "Sweethearts" (inspired by Gilbert's play

Sweethearts (play)

) and "The Love that Loves Me Not".

Genesis of the opera

The genesis of Trial by Jury began in 1868, when Gilbert wrote a single-page illustrated comic piece for the magazine Fun

Fun (magazine)

Fun was a Victorian weekly magazine, first published on 21 September 1861. The magazine was founded by the actor and playwright H. J. Byron in competition with Punch magazine.-Description:...

entitled Trial by Jury: An Operetta. Drawing on Gilbert's training and brief practice as a barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

, it detailed a "breach of promise

Breach of promise

" trial going awry, in the process spoofing the law, lawyers and the legal system. (In the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, a man could be required to pay compensation should he fail to marry a woman to whom he was engaged.) The outline of this story was followed in the later opera, and two of its numbers appeared in nearly their final form in Fun. The skit, however, ended abruptly: the moment the attractive plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

stepped into the witness box, the judge leapt into her arms and vowed to marry her, whereas in the opera, the case is allowed to proceed further before this conclusion is reached.

In 1873, Gilbert arranged with the opera manager and composer, Carl Rosa, to expand the piece into a one-act libretto

Libretto

. Rosa was to write or commission the music, and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa

Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa

Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa was a British operatic soprano who established the Carl Rosa Opera Company together with second husband Carl Rosa...

, his wife and an old friend of Gilbert's, was to sing the role of the Plaintiff, as part of a season of English opera that Rosa planned to present at the Drury Lane Theatre

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

. Euphrosyne died in childbirth in 1874, and the despondent Rosa dropped the project. Later in the same year, Gilbert offered the libretto to the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte

Richard D'Oyly Carte

Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...

, but Carte knew of no composer available to set it to music.

Meanwhile, Sullivan may have been considering a return to light opera: Cox and Box

Cox and Box

Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...

, his first comic opera, had received a London revival (co-starring his brother, Fred Sullivan

Fred Sullivan

Frederic Sullivan was an English actor and singer. He is best remembered as the creator of the role of the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, providing a model for the comic roles in the later Savoy Operas composed by his brother Arthur Sullivan.By 1870, Sullivan had abandoned...

) in September 1874. In November, Sullivan travelled to Paris and contacted Albert Millaud, one of the librettists for Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach

's operettas. However, he returned to London empty-handed and worked on incidental music

Incidental music

for the Gaiety Theatre

Gaiety Theatre, London

The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...

's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor

. By early 1875, Carte was managing Selina Dolaro

Selina Dolaro

Selina Dolaro was an English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer. During a career in operetta and other forms of musical theatre, she managed several of her own opera companies and raised four children as a single mother...

's Royalty Theatre

Royalty Theatre

, and he needed a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach's La Périchole

La Périchole

, which was to open on 30 January (with Fred Sullivan in the cast), and in which Dolaro starred. Carte had asked Sullivan to compose something for the theatre and advertised in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

in late January: "In Preparation, a New Comic Opera composed expressly for this theatre by Mr. Arthur Sullivan in which Madame Dolaro and Nellie Bromley will appear." But around the same time, Carte also remembered Gilbert's Trial by Jury and knew that Gilbert had worked with Sullivan to create Thespis. He suggested to Gilbert that Sullivan was the man to write the music for Trial.

Gilbert finally called on Sullivan and read the libretto to him on 20 February 1875. Sullivan was enthusiastic, later recalling, "[Gilbert] read it through ... in the manner of a man considerably disappointed with what he had written. As soon as he had come to the last word, he closed up the manuscript violently, apparently unconscious of the fact that he had achieved his purpose so far as I was concerned, inasmuch as I was screaming with laughter the whole time." Trial by Jury, described as "A Novel and Original Dramatic Cantata" in the original promotional material, was composed and rehearsed in a matter of weeks.

Production and aftermath

The result of Gilbert and Sullivan's collaboration was a witty, tuneful and very "English" piece, in contrast to the bawdy burlesques and adaptations of French operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

s that dominated the London musical stage at that time.

Initially, Trial by Jury, which runs only 30 minutes or so, was played last on a triple bill, on which the main attraction, La Périchole

La Périchole

(starring Dolaro as the title character, Fred Sullivan as Don Andres and Walter H. Fisher

Walter H. Fisher

Walter Henry Fisher was an English singer and actor of the Victorian era best known as a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the creator of the role of the Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 opera Trial by Jury...

as Piquillo), was preceded by the one-act farce

Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata

Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata, or While it's to be Had was a one-act play styled a "successful romantic Extravaganza", written by R. H. Edgar and Charles Collette, an actor who also starred in the leading role of Plantagenet Smith and wrote the words and music of the play's hit song...

. The latter was immediately replaced by a series of other curtain raisers

Curtain raiser (drama)

A curtain raiser is a performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain...

. Arthur Sullivan conducted the first night's performance, and the theatre's music director, B. Simmons, conducted thereafter. The composer's brother, Fred Sullivan, starred as the Learned Judge, with Nellie Bromley as the Plaintiff. One of the choristers in Trial by Jury, W. S. Penley

W. S. Penley

William Sydney Penley was an English actor, singer and comedian best remembered as producer and star of the phenomenally successful 1892 Brandon Thomas farce, Charley's Aunt and as the Reverend Robert Spalding in many productions of The Private Secretary.-Life and career:Penley was born at...

, was promoted in November 1875 to the small part of the Foreman of the Jury and made a strong impact on audiences with his amusing facial expressions and gestures. In March 1876, he temporarily replaced Fred Sullivan as the Judge, when Fred's health declined from tuberculosis. With this start, Penley went on to a successful career as comic actor, culminating with the lead role in the record-breaking original production of Charley's Aunt

Charley's Aunt

Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....

. Fred Sullivan died in January 1877.

Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach

's works were then at the height of their popularity in Britain, but Trial by Jury proved even more popular than La Périchole, becoming an unexpected hit. Trial by Jury drew crowds and continued to run after La Périchole closed. While the Royalty Theatre closed for the summer in 1875, Dolaro immediately took Trial on tour in England and Ireland. The piece was revived for additional London seasons in 1876 at the Opera Comique

Opera Comique

The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...

and in 1877 at the Strand Theatre

Royal Strand Theatre

The Royal Strand Theatre was located in Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps...

.

Trial by Jury soon became the most desirable supporting piece for any London production, and, outside London, the major British theatrical touring companies had added it to their repertoire by about 1877. The original production was even given a world tour by Opera Comique

Opera Comique

assistant manager Emily Soldene

Emily Soldene

Emily Soldene was an English singer, actress, director, theatre manager, novelist and journalist of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian period...

, which travelled as far as Australia. Unauthorised "pirate" productions quickly sprang up in America, taking advantage of the fact that American courts did not enforce foreign copyrights. It also became popular as part of the Victorian tradition of "benefit concerts", where the theatrical community came together to raise money for actors and actresses down on their luck or retiring. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...

continued to play the work for a century, licensing the piece to amateur and foreign professional companies, such as the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company. Since the copyrights to Gilbert and Sullivan works ran out in 1961, the piece has been available to theatre companies around the world free of royalties. The work's enduring popularity since 1875 makes it, according to theatrical scholar Kurt Gänzl

Kurt Gänzl

Kurt Gänzl is an award-winning writer, musicologist, casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre....

, "probably the most successful British one-act operetta of all time".

The success of Trial by Jury spurred several attempts to reunite Gilbert and Sullivan, but difficulties arose. Plans for a collaboration for Carl Rosa in 1875 fell through because Gilbert was too busy with other projects, and an attempted Christmas 1875 revival of Thespis by Richard D'Oyly Carte failed when the financiers backed out. Gilbert and Sullivan continued their separate careers, though both continued writing light opera, among other projects: Sullivan's next light opera, The Zoo

The Zoo

The Zoo is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St. James's Theatre in London , concluding its run five weeks later, on 9 July 1875, at the Haymarket Theatre...

, opened while Trial by Jury was still playing, in June 1875; and Gilbert's Eyes and No Eyes

Eyes and No Eyes

Eyes and No Eyes, or The Art of Seeing is a one-act musical entertainment with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music originally by Thomas German Reed that premiered on July 5, 1875 at St. George's Hall in London and ran for only a month. The original music was lost, and twenty years later new...

premièred a month later, followed by Princess Toto

Princess Toto

Princess Toto is a three-act comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and his long-time collaborator Frederic Clay. It opened on 24 June 1876 at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, starring Kate Santley, W. S. Penley and J. H. Ryley. It transferred to the Royal Strand Theatre in London on 2 October 1876 for a run...

in 1876. However, Gilbert and Sullivan would not be reunited until The Sorcerer

The Sorcerer

The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...

in 1877.

Roles

The Learned Judge (comic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

)
The Plaintiff (soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

)
The Defendant (tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

)
Counsel
Counsel
A counsel or a counselor gives advice, more particularly in legal matters.-U.K. and Ireland:The legal system in England uses the term counsel as an approximate synonym for a barrister-at-law, and may apply it to mean either a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, the body of barristers...

for the Plaintiff (lyric baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

)
Usher (bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...

)
Foreman of the Jury (bass)
Associate (silent)
First Bridesmaid
Chorus of Bridesmaids, Gentlemen of the Jury, Barristers, Attorneys and Public.

Synopsis

Excerpt from "The Judge's Song"

called to the bar

Call to the bar

The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...

,
I'd an appetite fresh and hearty.
But I was, as many young barrister

Barrister

s are,
An impecunious party.
I'd a swallow-tail coat of a beautiful blue –
A brief which I bought of a booby –
A couple of shirts, and a collar or two,
And a ring that looked like a ruby!

CHORUS.
He'd a couple of shirts, and a collar or two,
And a ring that looked like a ruby.

JUDGE.
In Westminster Hall I danced a dance,
Like a semi-despondent fury;
For I thought I never should hit on a chance
Of addressing a British Jury –
But I soon got tired of third-class journeys,
And dinners of bread and water;
So I fell in love with a rich attorney's
Elderly, ugly daughter.

CHORUS.
So he fell in love, etc.

Drawing by W. S. Gilbert

The curtain rises on the Court of the Exchequer, where a jury and the public assemble to hear a case of breach of promise

Breach of promise

of marriage.

The Usher introduces the proceedings by exhorting the jury to listen to the broken-hearted Plaintiff's case but telling them that they "needn't mind" what the "ruffianly defendant" has to say. He adds, however, that "From bias free of every kind, this trial must be tried!" The Defendant (Edwin) arrives, and the jurymen greet him with hostility, even though, as he points out, they have as yet no idea of the merits of his case. He tells them, with surprising candour, that he jilted the Plaintiff because she became a "bore intense" to him, and he then quickly took up with another woman. The jurymen recall their own wayward youth, but they are now respectable gentlemen and no longer have any sympathy for the Defendant.

The Judge enters with great pomp and describes how he rose to his position – by courting a rich attorney's "elderly, ugly daughter". The rich attorney then aided his prospective son-in-law's legal career until "at length I became as rich as the Gurneys

Gurney's bank

Gurney's bank was a well-respected family-run bank headquartered in Norwich, England. It merged into Barclays Bank in 1896.-History:The bank was founded in 1770 by John and Henry Gurney, sons of John Gurney , who passed the business to Henry's son, Bartlett Gurney, in 1777...

" and "threw over" the daughter. The jury and public are delighted with the judge, and ignore that he has just admitted to the same wrong of which the Defendant is accused.

The jury is then sworn in, and the Plaintiff (Angelina) is summoned. She is preceded into the courtroom by her bridesmaids, one of whom catches the eye of the judge. However, when Angelina herself arrives in full wedding dress, she instantly captures the heart of both Judge and jury. The Counsel for the Plaintiff makes a moving speech detailing Edwin's betrayal. Angelina feigns distress and staggers, first into the arms of the Foreman of the Jury, and then of the Judge. Edwin counters, explaining that his change of heart is only natural:

Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray,
Though I own that my heart has been ranging,
Of nature the laws I obey,
For nature is constantly changing.
The moon in her phases is found,
The time and the wind and the weather,
The months in succession come round,
And you don't find two Mondays together.

He offers to marry both the Plaintiff and his new love, if that would satisfy everyone. The Judge at first finds this "a reasonable proposition", but the Counsel argues that from the days of James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

, it has been "a rather serious crime / To marry two wives at a time" (humorously, he labels the crime in question "burglary

Burglary

Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...

" rather than "bigamy

Bigamy

In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...

"). Perplexed, everyone in court ponders the "nice dilemma" in a parody of Italian opera ensembles.

Angelina desperately embraces Edwin, demonstrating the depth of her love, and bemoans her loss – all in evidence of the large amount of damages that the jury should force Edwin to pay. Edwin, in turn, says he is a smoker, a drunkard, and a bully (when tipsy), and that the Plaintiff could not have endured him even for a day; thus the damages should be small. The Judge suggests making Edwin tipsy to see if he would really "thrash and kick" Angelina, but everyone else (except Edwin) objects to this experiment. Impatient at the lack of progress, the Judge resolves the case by offering to marry Angelina himself. This is found quite satisfactory, and the opera is concluded with "joy unbounded".

Musical numbers

1. "Hark, the hour of ten is sounding" (Chorus) and "Now, Jurymen, hear my advice" (Usher)
1a. "Is this the Court of the Exchequer?" (Defendant)
2. "When first my old, old love I knew" (Defendant and Chorus) and "Silence in Court!" (Usher)
3. "All hail great Judge!" (Chorus and Judge)
4. "When I, good friends, was call'd to the Bar" (Judge and Chorus)
5. "Swear thou the Jury" (Counsel, Usher) and "Oh will you swear by yonder skies" (Usher and Chorus)
6. "Where is the Plaintiff?" (Counsel, Usher) and "Comes the broken flower" (Chorus of Bridesmaids and Plaintiff)
7. "Oh, never, never, never, since I joined the human race" (Judge, Foreman, Chorus)
8. "May it please you, my lud!" (Counsel for Plaintiff and Chorus)
9. "That she is reeling is plain to see!" (Judge, Foreman, Plaintiff, Counsel, and Chorus)
10. "Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray" (Defendant and Chorus of Bridesmaids)
11. "That seems a reasonable proposition" (Judge, Counsel, and Chorus)
12. "A nice dilemma we have here" (Ensemble)
13. "I love him, I love him, with fervour unceasing" (Plaintiff, Defendant and Chorus) and "The question, gentlemen, is one of liquor" (Judge and Ensemble)
14. "Oh, joy unbounded, with wealth surrounded" (Ensemble)

For clarity, only characters with a major role in each particular song have been listed.

Reception

Reviews of the first performance of Trial by Jury were uniformly glowing. Fun

Fun (magazine)

Fun was a Victorian weekly magazine, first published on 21 September 1861. The magazine was founded by the actor and playwright H. J. Byron in competition with Punch magazine.-Description:...

magazine declared the opera "extremely funny and admirably composed", while rival Punch

Punch (magazine)

Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...

magazine wrote that it "is the funniest bit of nonsense your representative has seen for a considerable time", only regretting that it was too short. The Daily News

News Chronicle

The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...

praised the author: "In whimsical invention and eccentric humour Mr. W. S. Gilbert has no living rival among our dramatic writers, and never has his peculiar vein of drollery and satire been more conspicuous than in a little piece entitled Trial by Jury". The Daily Telegraph concluded that the piece illustrated the composer's "great capacity for dramatic writing of the lighter class". Many critics emphasised the happy combination of Gilbert's words and Sullivan's music. One noted that "so completely is each imbued with the same spirit, that it would be as difficult to conceive the existence of Mr. Gilbert's verses without Mr. Sullivan's music, as of Mr. Sullivan's music without Mr. Gilbert's verses. Each gives each a double charm." Another agreed that "it seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain."

In 1880, Punch

Punch (magazine)

magazine prematurely anticipated Sullivan's knighthood, publishing a cartoon accompanied by a parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

version of "When I, good friends", from Trial by Jury, that summarised Sullivan's career to that date:

Excerpt from A Humorous Knight"

["It is reported that after the Leeds Festival Dr. Sullivan will be knighted." Having read this in a column of gossip, a be-nighted Contributor, who has "the Judge's Song" on the brain, suggests the following verse....]

As a boy I had such a musical bump,
And its size so struck Mr. HELMORE,
That he said, "Though you sing those songs like a trump,
You shall write some yourself that will sell more."
So I packed off to Leipsic, without looking back,
And returned in such classical fury,
That I sat down with HANDEL and HAYDN and BACH,—
And turned out "Trial by Jury."

But W.S.G.

W. S. Gilbert

he jumped for joy
As he said, "Though the job dismay you,
Send Exeter Hall

Exeter Hall

Exeter Hall was a hall on the north side of The Strand, London, England. It was erected between 1829 and 1831 on the site of Exeter Exchange, to designs by John Peter Gandy, the brother of the visionary architect Joseph Michael Gandy...

to the deuce, my boy;
It's the haul with me that'll pay you."
And we hauled so well, mid jeers and taunts,
That we've settled, spite all temptations,
To stick to our Sisters and our Cousins and our Aunts,—
And continue our pleasant relations.

The opening night audience was also delighted by the piece, preferring it even to the Offenbach work: "To judge by the unceasing and almost boisterous hilarity which formed a sort of running commentary on the part of the audience, Trial by Jury suffered nothing whatever from so dangerous a juxtaposition [with a piece by the popular Offenbach]. On the contrary, it may fairly be said to have borne away the palm." A reviewer noted that "Laughter more frequent or more hearty was never heard in any theatre than that which more than once brought the action ... to a temporary standstill." Another paper summed up its popular appeal: "Trial by Jury is but a trifle – it pretends to be nothing more – but it is one of those merry bits of extravagance which a great many will go to see and hear, which they will laugh at, and which they will advise their friends to go and see, and therefore its success cannot be doubtful."

Among the actors, special critical praise was reserved for the composer's brother, Fred Sullivan, in the role of the Learned Judge: "The greatest 'hit' was made by Mr. F. Sullivan, whose blending of official dignity, condescension, and, at the right moment, extravagant humour, made the character of the Judge stand out with all requisite prominence, and added much to the interest of the piece." The Times

The Times

concurred that his portrayal deserved "a special word of praise for its quiet and natural humour." Nelly Bromley (the Plaintiff), Walter H. Fisher

Walter H. Fisher

(the Defendant), John Hollingsworth (the Counsel) and others were also praised for their acting.

Later assessments of the work have been no less positive. In 1907, Gilbert's first biographer, Edith A. Browne, concluded: "In Trial by Jury we find author and composer looking at the humorous side of life from exactly the same point of view, and we at once realise how Gilbert and Sullivan have been able to do for Comic Opera what Wagner has done for Grand Opera by combining words and music so as to make them one." H. M. Walbrook similarly wrote in 1922:
Gilbert and Sullivan biographer Michael Ainger, writing in 2002, 127 years after the premiere of the opera, explained its enduring appeal: "Nothing could be more serious than a court of law ... and now the world had been turned upside down. The court of law had become the scene of humor and frivolity; the learned judge had shown himself to be as fickle as the defendant, and the justice system turned out to be flawed by human frailty. And Sullivan had grasped the joke.... From the first chords ... Sullivan’s music sets the scene of mock-seriousness and proceeds to dance its way through the whole piece."

Impact and analysis

Impact

As the first Savoy opera

Savoy opera

, Trial by Jury marked an important moment in the history of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration, as well as in the careers of each of the two men and in Victorian drama in general. Historian Reginald Allen sums up the historical import of the opera:
Sidney Dark and Rowland Grey also give a high value to the importance of Trial by Jury and the operas that followed: "There is not a little historical interest in the genesis of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the one English contribution of any value to dramatic literature for many generations." In addition, references to the opera continue today in the popular media and even in law cases.

Pattern for later Savoy operas

Trial by Jury is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera played in one act and the only theatrical work by W. S. Gilbert without spoken dialogue. However, later Gilbert and Sullivan operas retained a number of patterns seen in Trial. For example, all except for The Yeomen of the Guard

The Yeomen of the Guard

The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...

begin with a chorus number. Also, like Trial by Jury, the later operas generally end with a relatively short finale consisting of a chorus number interspersed with short solos by the principal characters. "Comes the broken flower" (part of No. 3) was the first in a string of meditative "Horatian

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

" lyrics, "mingling happiness and sadness, an acceptance and a smiling resignation". These would, from this point forward, allow the characters, in each of the Savoy operas, an introspective scene where they stop and consider life, in contrast to the foolishness of the surrounding scenes. Like both of the tenor's arias in Trial by Jury, tenor arias in later Savoy operas were set in 6/8 time so frequently that comedienne Anna Russell

Anna Russell

Anna Russell, née Anna Claudia Russell-Brown was an English–Canadian singer and comedienne. She gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano...

, in her 1953 parody, "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera", exclaimed, "the tenor ... according to tradition, must sing an aria in 6/8 time, usually accompanying himself on a stringed instrument". In Trial by Jury hypocrisy is revealed as the characters' motivations are held up to satire, and Gilbert mocks the underlying absurdity of the judicial procedures. As Gilbert scholar Andrew Crowther explains, Gilbert combines his criticisms with comic entertainment, which renders them more palatable, while at the same time underlining their truth: "By laughing at a joke you show that you accept its premise." This too would become characteristic of Gilbert's work.

The judge's song, "When I, good friends, was called to the Bar" was followed by a string of similar patter song

Patter song

The patter song is characterized by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note...

s that would come to epitomise Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

's collaboration. In these, often, a "dignified personage [would, just like the Judge,] supply a humorous biography of himself. Just as in Gilbert's earlier play, The Palace of Truth

The Palace of Truth

The Palace of Truth is a three-act blank verse "Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 November 1870, partly adapted from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, Le Palais de Vérite. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British...

, in these songs, the characters "naïvely reveal their innermost thoughts, unconscious of their egotism, vanity, baseness, or cruelty". Crowther points out that such revelations work particularly well in Trial by Jury, because people commonly expect "characters singing in opera/operetta will communicate at a deeper level of truth than they would in mere speech." In "When I, good friends", the judge outlines the path of corruption that led to his becoming a judge, and this, too, would set the pattern for many of the patter songs in Gilbert and Sullivan operas to follow.

One of Gilbert's most notable innovations, first found in Thespis and repeated in Trial by Jury and all of the later Savoy operas, is the use of the chorus as an essential part of the action. In most earlier operas, burlesques, and comedies, the chorus had very little impact on the plot and served mainly as "noise or ornament". In the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, however, the chorus is essential, taking part in the action and often acting as an important character in its own right. Sullivan recalled, "Until Gilbert took the matter in hand choruses were dummy concerns, and were practically nothing more than a part of the stage setting. It was in 'Thespis' that Gilbert began to carry out his expressed determination to get the chorus to play its proper part in the performance. At this moment it seems difficult to realise that the idea of the chorus being anything more than a sort of stage audience was, at that time, a tremendous novelty." Another Gilbert innovation, following the example of his mentor, T. W. Robertson, was that the costumes and sets were made as realistic as possible: Gilbert based the scenery for the production on the Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

Sessions House, where he had practised law in the 1860s. The costumes were contemporary, and Angelina and her bridesmaids were dressed in real wedding attire. This attention to detail and careful creation of realistic sets and scenes were typical of Gilbert's stage management and would be repeated in all of Gilbert's work. For instance, when preparing the sets for H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...

(1878), Gilbert and Sullivan visited Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

to inspect ships. Gilbert made sketches of the H.M.S. Victory and the H.M.S. St Vincent

HMS St Vincent (1815)

HMS St Vincent was a 120-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1810 at Plymouth Dockyard and launched on 11 March 1815 before a crowd that was put at 50,000 spectators.-Service:...

and created a model set for the carpenters to work from. This was far from standard procedure in Victorian drama, where naturalism was still a relatively new concept, and where most authors had very little influence on how their plays and libretti were staged.

Analysis

Andrew Crowther places Trial by Jury at the centre of Gilbert's development as a librettist. He notes that in some of Gilbert's early libretti, such as Topsyturveydom

Topsyturveydom

(1874), the songs simply emphasise the dialogue. In others, such as Thespis

Thespis (opera)

(1871), some songs are relatively disconnected from both the story and characterisation, such as "I once knew a chap" or "Little maid of Arcadee", which simply convey a moral lesson. In Trial by Jury, however, each song carries the plot forward and adds depth to the characters. In addition, unlike some of Gilbert's more fantastical early plots, "Aside from the ending, nothing essentially improbable happens." Theatre historian Kurt Gänzl

Kurt Gänzl

Kurt Gänzl is an award-winning writer, musicologist, casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre....

agrees, writing that "Gilbert's libretto was superior to any of his previous efforts. It was concise, modern and satirical without being impossibly whimsical. Having no spoken dialogue it was perforce tightly constructed and allowed of no interpolation or alteration." Sullivan's development as a comic opera writer, too, would mature with Trial by Jury. Except for incidental music for productions of Shakespeare, he had not written any music for the stage since Thespis. Gänzl wrote that Trial by Jury "brought Sullivan firmly and finally into the world of the musical" stage and confirmed, after his previous success with Cox and Box

Cox and Box

and Thespis, that "Sullivan was a composer of light lyric and comic music who could rival Offenbach, Lecocq

Alexandre Charles Lecocq

Alexandre Charles Lecocq was a French musical composer. He was admitted into the Conservatoire in 1849, being already an accomplished pianist. He studied under François Bazin, François Benoist, and Fromental Halévy, winning the first prize for harmony in 1850, and the second prize for fugue in 1852...

and any English musician alive."

Sullivan used the opportunities suggested by Gilbert's satire of the pomp and ceremony of the law to provide a variety of musical jokes. "From the first chords ... Sullivan's music sets the scene of mock-seriousness.... His ... humorous use of the orchestra runs throughout". For example, counterpoint

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

ing the plaintiff's calculated swooning in "That she is reeling is plain to see!" (No. 9) with a reeling, minor-key theme in the string accompaniment, heading up and down the octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

s. The instruments are also used to comically set the scene; for instance, he underlines the Counsel's misstatement in the line "To marry two at once is burglaree" with a comic bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

"sting" in octaves and has the Defendant tune his guitar on stage (simulated by a violin in the orchestra) in the opening to his song.

The score also contains two parodies or pastiches of other composers: No. 3, "All hail great Judge" is an elaborate parody of Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

's fugue

Fugue

In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

s, and No. 12, "A nice dilemma", parodies "dilemma" ensembles of Italian opera in the Bel canto

Bel canto

Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...

era; in particular "D'un pensiero" from Act I of Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

's La sonnambula

La sonnambula

La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...

. "A nice dilemma" uses the dominant rhythm and key of "D'un pensiero" and divides up some of the choral lines between the basses and higher voices to create an oom-pa-pa effect common in Italian opera choruses.

Productions

After the premiere of Trial by Jury in 1875, operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

companies in London, the British provinces and elsewhere picked it up rapidly, usually playing it as a forepiece or an afterpiece to a French operetta. The first American productions were at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia on 22 October 1875 and the Eagle Theatre in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

on 15 November 1875. The world tour of the original British production took it to America, Australia, and elsewhere. It was even translated into German, and premièred as Im Schwurgericht, at the Carltheater

Carltheater

The Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...

on 14 September 1886, and as Das Brautpaar vor Gericht at Danzer's Orpheum on 5 October 1901.

Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies (of which there were often several playing simultaneously) usually programmed Trial by Jury as a companion piece to The Sorcerer

The Sorcerer

or H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore

. In the 1884–85 production, a "transformation scene" was added at the end, in which the Judge and Plaintiff became the Harlequinade

Harlequinade

Harlequinade is a comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th centuries...

characters Harlequin and Columbine and the set was consumed by red fire and flames. From 1894, the year when the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

established a year-round touring company that had most of the Gilbert and Sullivan works in its repertory, Trial by Jury was always included, except for 1901–03, and then again from 1943–46, when the company played a reduced repertory during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

During the company's 1975 centennial performances of all thirteen Gilbert and Sullivan Operas at the Savoy Theatre, Trial was given four times, as a curtain raiser to The Sorcerer, Pinafore and Pirates and as an afterpiece following The Grand Duke. Before the first of the four performances of Trial, a specially written curtain raiser by William Douglas-Home

William Douglas-Home

William Douglas Home was court-martialled in World War II for his refusal to obey orders as a British army officer and later became a successful British dramatist.-Early life:...

, called Dramatic Licence, was played by Peter Pratt

Peter Pratt

Peter Pratt was an English actor and singer who is best remembered for his comic roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas....

as Carte, Kenneth Sandford

Kenneth Sandford

Kenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan....

as Gilbert and John Ayldon

John Ayldon

John Ayldon is an English opera singer, best known for his performances in bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Life and career:...

as Sullivan, in which Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte plan the birth of Trial in 1875. Trial by Jury was eliminated in 1976 as a cost-saving measure.

Production history

The following table summarises the main London productions of Trial by Jury through Sullivan's death in 1900:

Theatre	Opening Date	Closing Date	Perfs.	Details
Royalty Theatre	25 March 1875	11 June 1875	131	This company also played matinées at the Gaiety Theatre Gaiety Theatre, London The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II... on 10 April, 17 April, and 24 April 1875. The theatre closed from 12 June through October 10 while the company took Trial by Jury and other operas on a provincial tour. After 18 December, this production was transferred to the Opera Comique Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway... .
Royalty Theatre	11 October 1875	18 December 1875	131
Opera Comique	13 January 1876	5 May 1876	96	Trial by Jury was not performed from March 13–18 while Fred Sullivan was ill.
Strand Theatre	3 March 1877	26 May 1877	73	Produced "under the immediate direction of the authors". Originally performed as an afterpiece to Tom Taylor Tom Taylor Tom Taylor was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine... 's comedy Babes and Beetles.
Opera Comique	23 March 1878	24 May 1878	56	Played as an afterpiece to The Sorcerer
Savoy Theatre	11 October 1884	12 March 1885	150	Played as a forepiece to The Sorcerer
Savoy Theatre	22 September 1898	31 December 1898	102	Played as a forepiece to The Sorcerer
Savoy Theatre	6 June 1899	25 November 1899	174	Played as a forepiece to H.M.S. Pinafore

The exclusive performing rights to Trial by Jury and the other Gilbert and Sullivan operas were held by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

until their expiration in 1961, 50 years after Gilbert's death, and no other professional company was authorised to present the Savoy operas in Britain until that date. The following tables show the casts of the principal original D'Oyly Carte productions and touring companies at approximately 10-year intervals through to the 1975 centenary season.

Role	Royalty Theatre 1875	Strand Theatre 1877	Opera Comique 1878	Savoy Theatre 1884	Savoy Theatre 1898
Judge	Frederic Sullivan Fred Sullivan Frederic Sullivan was an English actor and singer. He is best remembered as the creator of the role of the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, providing a model for the comic roles in the later Savoy Operas composed by his brother Arthur Sullivan.By 1870, Sullivan had abandoned...	J.G. Taylor	George Grossmith George Grossmith George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	Henry Lytton Henry Lytton Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
Counsel	John Hollingsworth	Charles Parry	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	Eric Lewis Eric Lewis (actor) Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...	Jones Hewson Jones Hewson John Jones Hewson , credited as Jones Hewson, was a Welsh singer and actor known for his creation and portrayal of baritone roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1896 to 1901....
Defendant	Walter H. Fisher Walter H. Fisher Walter Henry Fisher was an English singer and actor of the Victorian era best known as a member of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the creator of the role of the Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 opera Trial by Jury...	Claude Marius	George Power Sir George Power, 7th Baronet George Power was an operatic tenor known for his performances in early Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, most famously creating the roles in London of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance .He later became a noted voice teacher...	Durward Lely Durward Lely Durward Lely was a Scottish opera singer primarily known as the creator of five tenor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, including Nanki-Poo in The Mikado....	Cory James
Foreman	Charles Kelleher	W. S. Penley W. S. Penley William Sydney Penley was an English actor, singer and comedian best remembered as producer and star of the phenomenally successful 1892 Brandon Thomas farce, Charley's Aunt and as the Reverend Robert Spalding in many productions of The Private Secretary.-Life and career:Penley was born at...	F. Talbot	Arthur Kennett	Leonard Russell
Usher	Belville R. Pepper	Harry Cox	Fred Clifton	William Lugg William Lugg William Lugg was a British actor and singer of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. He had a long stage career beginning with roles in several Gilbert and Sullivan operas and continuing for over four decades in drama, comedy and musical theatre...	Walter Passmore Walter Passmore Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
Associate				J. Wilbraham	Charles Childerstone
Plaintiff	Nelly Bromley Nelly Bromley Nelly Bromley was an English actor and singer who performed in operettas and musical burlesques...	Lottie Venne Lottie Venne Lottie Venne was a British comedienne, actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, who enjoyed a theatre career spanning five decades. Venne began her stage career in musical burlesque before moving into farce and comedy. She appeared in several works by each of F. C. Burnand and W. S...	Lisa Walton	Florence Dysart	Isabel Jay Isabel Jay Isabel Jay was an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies...
1st Bridesmaid	Linda Verner	Gwynne Williams		Sybil Grey Sybil Grey Sybil Grey was a British opera singer during the Victorian era best known for creating a series of minor roles in productions by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including roles in several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, between 1880 to 1888...	Mildred Baker

Role	D'Oyly Carte 1905 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1915 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1925 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1935 Tour
Judge	Charles H. Workman Charles H. Workman Charles H. Workman was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was sometimes credited as C. Herbert Workman or C. H...	Leo Sheffield Leo Sheffield Leo Sheffield was an English singer and actor best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....	Leo Sheffield Leo Sheffield Leo Sheffield was an English singer and actor best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....	Sydney Granville Sydney Granville Sydney Granville was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
Counsel	Albert Kavanagh	Frederick Hobbs Frederick Hobbs (singer) Frederick Hobbs was a New Zealand-born singer, actor and theatre manager. After performing as a concert singer in New Zealand and Australia and in opera and musicals in Britain, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1914. There he played the baritone and bass-baritone roles of the Gilbert...	Henry Millidge	Leslie Rands Leslie Rands Leslie Rands was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married D'Oyly Carte soprano Marjorie Eyre in 1926.-Life and career:...
Defendant	Strafford Moss	Dewey Gibson	Sidney Pointer	Robert Wilson Robert Wilson (tenor) Robert Wilson was a Scottish tenor. After beginning his career with the Rothesay Entertainers in Scotland, Wilson joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, with whom he performed from 1931 to 1937...
Foreman	J. Lewis Campion	Frank Steward	T. Penry Hughes	T. Penry Hughes
Usher	Reginald White	George Sinclair	Joseph Griffin	Richard Walker Richard Walker (singer) Richard Walker, was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in the baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Between 1932 and 1939 Walker was married to D'Oyly Carte chorister Ena Martin...
Associate		Allen Morris	Martyn Green Martyn Green William Martyn-Green , better known as Martyn Green, was an English actor and singer. He is best known for his work as principal comedian in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, which he performed and recorded with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and other troupes.After army service in World War I,...	C. William Morgan
Plaintiff	Bessie Mackenzie	Marjorie Gordon Marjorie Gordon Marjorie Gordon was an English actress and singer.Gordon was born in Southsea as Marjorie Kettlewell. Her professional stage career began in 1915 on tour in the chorus of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The next season, she was given the roles of the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury and Lady Psyche in...	Eleanor Evans Eleanor Evans Eleanor Evans was a Welsh actress, singer and stage director. She performed in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas for over a span of more than 20 years with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...	Ann Drummond-Grant Ann Drummond-Grant Ann Drummond-Grant was a British singer and actress, best known for her performances in contralto roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.Drummond-Grant began her career as a soprano...
1st Bridesmaid	Mabel Burnege	Ethel Armit	Beatrice Elburn	Nancy Ray

Role	D'Oyly Carte 1949 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1955 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1965 Tour	D'Oyly Carte 1975 Tour
Judge	Richard Watson Richard Watson (singer) Richard Charles Watson was an Australian bass opera and concert singer and actor. He is probably best remembered as a long-time principal with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company who sang the comic bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas, but he appeared in a wide range of operas at the Royal Opera...	John Reed John Reed (actor) John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...	Jeffrey Skitch Jeffrey Skitch Jeffrey Ralph Skitch is a retired teacher, actor and operatic baritone best known for his performances and recordings with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1952 to 1965....	Jon Ellison
Counsel	Alan Styler Alan Styler Alan Styler was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married former D'Oyly Carte chorister Vera Ryan.-Life and career:...	Alan Styler Alan Styler Alan Styler was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married former D'Oyly Carte chorister Vera Ryan.-Life and career:...	Alan Styler Alan Styler Alan Styler was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married former D'Oyly Carte chorister Vera Ryan.-Life and career:...	Michael Rayner
Defendant	Leonard Osborn Leonard Osborn Leonard Osborn was an English opera singer, best known for his portrayal of the tenor roles in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. An accomplished actor and dancer, he later became a stage director for the company.-Life and career:Leonard Alfred George Osborn was born in...	John Fryatt John Fryatt John James Fryatt was an English actor and opera singer best known for his performance in comic character roles....	Philip Potter Philip Potter Philip Potter is a retired English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Early life and career:Philip White Potter was born in Leicester...	Jeffrey Cresswell
Foreman	Donald Harris	John Banks	Anthony Raffell	James Conroy-Ward James Conroy-Ward James Conroy-Ward is a music publisher and retired English actor and singer best known for performing the Gilbert and Sullivan principal comic roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Biography:...
Usher	L. Radley Flynn L. Radley Flynn L. Radley "Rad" Flynn was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in bass roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He married D'Oyly Carte contralto Ella Halman in 1940....	George Cook	George Cook	John Broad
Associate	C. William Morgan	Keith Bonnington	Keith Bonnington	William Palmerley
Plaintiff	Enid Walsh	Kathleen West	Jennifer Toye	Marjorie Williams
1st Bridesmaid	Joyce Wright Joyce Wright Joyce Wright is an English singer and actress, best known for her performances in the mezzo-soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She was married for a time to another D'Oyly Carte performer, Peter Pratt....	Margaret Dobson	Pauline Wales Pauline Wales Pauline Wales is an English singer and actress best known for her performances in the mezzo-soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Life and career:...	Rosalind Griffiths

Benefit performances

Starting in 1877, Trial by Jury was often given at benefit performances, usually for an actor or actress who had fallen on hard times, but occasionally for other causes. These were glittering affairs, with various celebrities appearing in principal roles or as part of the chorus. Gilbert himself played the silent role of the Associate on at least four occasions.

Arthur Sullivan conducted the 1877 benefit for actor Henry Compton

Henry Compton (actor)

Henry Compton was an English actor best known for his Shakespearean comic roles.-Biography:...

. At the Compton benefit, Penley and George Grossmith

George Grossmith

George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...

were members of the Jury, and a number of other famous actors and actresses were in the chorus. Sullivan also conducted the 1889 benefit for Barrington.

At the Nellie Farren

Nellie Farren

Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...

benefit, many of the performers listed below sat in the jury or the gallery, and Trial by Jury was followed by a six-hour long concert. Performances were given by Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...

, Ellaline Terriss

Ellaline Terriss

Ellaline Terriss, born Ellaline Lewin , was a popular English actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies...

, Marie Tempest

Marie Tempest

Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...

, Hayden Coffin, Arthur Roberts, Letty Lind

Letty Lind

Letitia Elizabeth Rudge, better known as Letty Lind , was an English actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre, and in musical theatre at Daly's Theatre, in London....

, Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....

and many others.

The Ellen Terry

Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....

benefit in 1906 was also a particularly well-attended affair, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle numbered among the jury and Enrico Caruso singing, among many star performances.

Role	Henry Compton Henry Compton (actor) Henry Compton was an English actor best known for his Shakespearean comic roles.-Biography:... Drury Lane March 1, 1877	Amy Roselle Amy Roselle Amy Roselle was an English actress who performed in Britain, the U.S. and Australia. She specialised in Shakespearean roles but also played parts in contemporary dramas. She married Arthur Dacre, and the two toured together with their own theatre company, eventually traveling to Australia... Lyceum June 16, 1887	Rutland Barrington Savoy May 28, 1889	Nellie Farren Nellie Farren Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child... Drury Lane March 17, 1898
Judge	George Honey	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
Counsel	George Fox	Richard Temple	Alec Marsh	Eric Lewis Eric Lewis (actor) Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...
Defendant	W. H. Cummings	Henry Bracy Henry Bracy Henry Bracy was a Welsh tenor who is notable as the creator of the role of Prince Hilarion in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Princess Ida. Bracy was often a lead tenor within the operettas in which he appeared. He was married to actress Clara T. Bracy, the sister of Lydia Thompson...	Courtice Pounds Courtice Pounds Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...	Courtice Pounds Courtice Pounds Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...
Foreman			Mr. Burbank	Henry Lytton Henry Lytton Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
Usher	Arthur Cecil Arthur Cecil Arthur Cecil Blunt, better known as Arthur Cecil was an English actor, comedian, playwright and theatre manager. He is probably best remembered for playing the role of Box in the long-running production of Cox and Box, by Arthur Sullivan and F. C...	R. Lewis	W. H. Denny W. H. Denny W. H. Denny was an English singer and actor best remembered for his portrayal of baritone roles in the Savoy Operas.-Early years:...	Walter Passmore Walter Passmore Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
Associate	W. S. Gilbert W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...	Arthur Roberts		W. S. Gilbert W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
Plaintiff	Pauline Rita Pauline Rita Pauline Rita was an English soprano and actress. During her early career, she was best known known for her performances in operettas and comic operas at the Opera Comique and was associated with impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte...	Geraldine Ulmar Geraldine Ulmar Geraldine Ulmar was an American singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Life and career:...	Lottie Venne Lottie Venne Lottie Venne was a British comedienne, actress and singer of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, who enjoyed a theatre career spanning five decades. Venne began her stage career in musical burlesque before moving into farce and comedy. She appeared in several works by each of F. C. Burnand and W. S...	Florence Perry Florence Perry Florence Perry was an English opera singer and actress best known for her performances with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Biography:...

Role	Princess Christian's Homes of Rest for Disabled Soldiers Drury Lane, 15 May 1900	William Rignold William Rignold William Rignold was an English actor. Rignold began acting as a teenager, together with his brother George.-Biography:William Rignold was the first son of the actor William Ross Rignold and his wife, the actress Patricia Blaxland . A second son, George, also entered the theatrical profession... Lyric Theatre 5 December 1902	Ellen Terry Ellen Terry Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud.... Drury Lane 12 June 1906
Judge	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	\|Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...	Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
Counsel	Eric Lewis Eric Lewis (actor) Frederic Lewis Tuffley , better known by his stage name, Eric Lewis, was an English comedian, actor and singer...	C. Hayden Coffin C. Hayden Coffin Charles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes....	Henry Lytton Henry Lytton Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century...
Defendant	Courtice Pounds Courtice Pounds Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...	Courtice Pounds Courtice Pounds Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...	Courtice Pounds Courtice Pounds Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...
Foreman	W. H. Denny W. H. Denny W. H. Denny was an English singer and actor best remembered for his portrayal of baritone roles in the Savoy Operas.-Early years:...	Fred Kaye	Robert Marshall
Usher	Walter Passmore Walter Passmore Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....	George Grossmith, Jr. George Grossmith, Jr. George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...	Walter Passmore Walter Passmore Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
Associate	W. S. Gilbert W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...	Lionel Monckton Lionel Monckton Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English writer and composer of musical theatre. He was Britain's most popular musical theatre composer of the early years of the 20th century.-Early life:...	W. S. Gilbert W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
Associate's Wife¹	Effie Bancroft Effie Bancroft Marie Effie Wilton, Lady Bancroft was an English actress and theatre manager. She appeared onstage as Marie Wilton until after her marriage in December 1867 to Squire Bancroft, when she usually appeared under the name Lady Bancroft...	—	Fanny Brough
Plaintiff	Florence St. John Florence St. John Florence St. John , was an English singer and actress of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras famous for her roles in operetta, musical burlesque, music hall, opera and, later, comic plays.-Life and career:...	Evie Greene Evie Greene Edith Elizabeth Greene was a much-photographed English actress and singer who played in Edwardian musical comedies in London and on Broadway. She is most notable for starring as Dolores, the central character in the international hit musical Florodora...	Ruth Vincent Ruth Vincent Ruth Vincent was an English opera singer and actress, best remembered for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1890s and her roles in the West End during the first decade of the 20th century, particularly her role as Sophia in Tom...

¹The role of the Associate's Wife was especially created for the disabled soldiers' benefit performance and does not appear in any standard performances.

Recordings

Trial by Jury has been recorded many times. Of the recordings by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, those recorded in 1927 and 1964 are ranked the best, according to "A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography", edited by Marc Shepherd. The 1961 Sargent and especialy the 1995 Mackerras recordings are also rated highly by the Discography. Reviewer Michael Walters gives his highest praise to the 1924 recording, but he also likes the 1961 recording.

Selected recordings

1927 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: Harry Norris
Harry Norris (conductor)
Harry Norris was a New Zealand-born conductor best remembered as musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company between 1919 and 1929. After leaving that company, Norris emigrated to Canada to teach but returned to retire in England in the 1960s.-Life and career:Norris was born in...
1961 Sargent/Glyndebourne – Pro Arte Orchestra
Pro Arte Orchestra
-Background:The Pro Arte Orchestra was founded as a limited company chaired by the double-bass player Eugene Cruft; directors also included Archie Camden and Antony English. The initial aim was to perform "the finest of the lighter classics in orchestral music"...

, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
1964 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey was musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for 39 years, from 1929 to 1968...
1975 D'Oyly Carte – Conductor: Royston Nash
Royston Nash
Royston Hulbert Nash is an English-born conductor, best known as a music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, who is now living in the U.S.-Life and career:...
1982 Brent Walker Productions video – Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

, Conductor: Alexander Faris
Alexander Faris
Alexander "Sandy" Faris is an Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes. He has composed and recorded many operas and musicals, and has composed film scores and orchestral works.-Life and career:...
1995 Mackerras/Telarc – Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
2005 Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...

video (modern dress) – Stage Director: Stuart Maunder; conductor: Andrew Greene

Textual changes

Before the first performance of Trial by Jury, some material was cut, including two songs and a recitative

Recitative

Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

: a song for the foreman of the jury, "Oh, do not blush to shed a tear", which was to be sung just after "Oh, will you swear by yonder skies"; and a recitative for the Judge and song for the Usher, "We do not deal with artificial crime" and "His lordship's always quits", which came just before "A nice dilemma". The melody for "His Lordship's always quits" is known, and it was reused in "I loved her fondly" in The Zoo and later modified into the main tune from "A wand'ring minstrel, I" in The Mikado

The Mikado

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

. A few changes were made to the end of "I love him, I love him!" after the first night. A third verse for "Oh, gentlemen, listen I pray" was sung, at least on the first night, and part was quoted in a review in the Pictorial World.

Trial by Jury underwent relatively minor textual changes after its first run, mainly consisting of insignificant amendments to wording. The most significant changes involve the ending. The original stage directions set up a simple pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

-style tableau:
This became much more elaborate in the 1884 revival, with the entire set being transformed, and the plaintiff climbing onto the Judge's back "à la fairy". However, in the 1920s, the plaster cupids were evidently damaged on a tour, and the transformation scene was abandoned completely.

External links

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