DESCRIPTION:
Trial by Jury.

Role Usher performed by Amin Hedayat, 2005 Star Musician of Iran. Opera directed by Dr. Robin Buck, University of California Irvine

Trial by Jury is a comic opera (entitled "A Dramatic Cantata")[1] in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered on March 25, 1875 in London at the Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit. It then toured and was frequently revived, as detailed below. Initially it was played last on a triple bill; the other two works on opening night were Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole and Charles Collette's one-act farce Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata, which was immediately thereafter replaced with another work.

The opera came four years after Gilbert and Sullivan's only previous collaboration (Thespis, an 1871--72 Christmas season entertainment). In the intervening years, the author and composer each became even more eminent in his field. Trial was a hit, and numerous revivals followed. Its success launched the series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas (twelve more after Trial) that came to be known as the Savoy Operas, named for the theatre that Carte later built for them.

Trial is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera played in one act, and the only one with no spoken dialogue. As it is only about 30 minutes long, it is usually coupled with another work — often one of the shorter two-act Savoy Operas, such as The Sorcerer or H.M.S. Pinafore, or presented as a triple bill with Cox and Box and The Zoo. As with all the G&S operas, the plot of Trial is ludicrous, but by behaving as if everything were perfectly reasonable, the characters in this satire of the legal system (a favourite target of Gilbert's, who had a brief legal career) reveal truths about common foibles and follies of men, women and society at large.

UCI Opera offers training in acting, movement, repertoire and style for singers culminating in fully-staged as well as concert performances of opera and operetta. Recent productions have included Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury, Menotti's The Telephone, Pasatieri's Signor Deluso and three world-premieres including the Charles Mee/ Nathan Birnbaum Play/Opera War to End War, Gilmore's Coffee Date and Barabba's 'dentity Crisis. 2006 productions include Puccini's Gianni Schicchi in Winter and a concert staging of Act III of Puccini's La Bohême with the UCI Symphony in Spring.