I've just finished watching this on Bravo (in Toronto, Canada) and I stayed with it till the end to learn where this double-bill of "HMS Pinafore" and "Trial by Jury" (an all-musical 45-minute shortie) was produced: Well, it's an Opera Australia Melbourne production and it is simply the best G&S production I have seen in my entire life for sheer energy and general amusement. Even the audience seemed to have talent. The first part was classically elegant while the second part, a spoof of the English jury system, about a breach of promise trial, was simply shock-inducing with a lively chorus of jurymen and journalists whose every movement was choreographed and a talented bunch of idiots as the principals. All the soloists deserve an ovation with particular kudos to Anthony Warlow in a double role as the sober Captain and the tipsy Judge. "Trial By Jury" is of the two works, although short, the most musically ambitious and shows both Meyerbeerian excess, density and complexity and Offenbachian unity and simplicity. I also must admit I have never seen such a collection of manly, swarthy, burly, stalwart men who can also sing on a single stage in my life. Makes you feel like booking a cruise to Australia right away. They certainly have a way of updating tradition with class down under. Makes you wonder how they could have come up with a turkey like "Moulin Rouge". Oh well... By the way, I take exception with another commentator's opinion that the line "Be firm, be firm, my pecker" is a new addition to the text. It's been in the original libretto for a hundred years, back in the days when a "pecker" was a nose...
Review of Trial by Jury
