(In prep)
When Trial by Jury was first commissioned from Gilbert and Sullivan it was generally played as a curtain-raiser to various operettas by Offenbach. For most of the next century the D'Oyly Carte company played it in tandem with HMS Pinafore or, less often, The Pirates of Penzance. There have even been attempts to pair it with other surprising items - Tchaikovsky's then unknown final opera Iolanta was a fascinating, though not-entirely-successful, opening companion with the English Opera Group back in the seventies.
What has not, it seems, been tried before is to provide a completely new work. This promised to be an interesting experiment, and at the third performance - the first in Edinburgh - many of the gags were greeted with hilarity by the crowded audience. Almost unheard of - there were actually some real politicians in the audience, a first experience of opera perhaps. There were also representatives from the co-producers, D'Oyly Carte and Opera Holland Park. Surely they will have been much happier.
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