Four years passed after Gilbert and Sullivan had created the 1871 holiday entertainment "Thespis", and each man became even more eminent in his field, but they did not have occasion to work together. Richard D'Oyly Carte, a manager at the Royalty Theatre, asked the two men to collaborate on a short opera to be played as an afterpiece to Offenbach's comic opera, "La Perichole". On March 25, 1875 "Trial by Jury" opened at the Royalty Theatre, and the very witty, tuneful and "English" piece was an immediate hit with Londoners, running for 300 performances.

Trial by Jury is played in one act (usually together with another piece) and is sung throughout, with no spoken dialogue. 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 reveal truths about common foibles and follies of men, women, society and universal situations.

In Trial, a jilted bride sues for breach of promise of marriage: the Defendant has found a new love. The judge and jury are much taken with the Plaintiff, while the ladies in the Public Gallery seem enamoured of the Defendant. The Defendant claims that any damages must be small since he is such a "very bad lot" that the Plaintiff couldn't endure him for even a day! He offers to "marry this lady today and marry the other tomorrow." The judge ponders this nice dilemma and makes an imaginative ruling to settle the case happily.