Trial by Jury is the earliest work by Gilbert and Sullivan which is still<br >performed today， it was not， in fact， their first joint enterprise. They had<br >collaborated in 1871 on an opera called Thespis， or the Gods Grown Old， which<br >had been commissioned by John Hollingshead， the owner and manager of<br >the Gaiety Theatre. However， the musical score of this work does not<br >survive.<br > After Thespis， which was staged at the Gaiety， the librettist and composer<br >had gone their separate ways - Gilbert to write plays and Sullivan to<br >compose church music， songs and ballads. That their remarkable talents<br >were brought together again four years later was due partly to accident and<br >partly to the vision and imagination of Richard D Oyly Carte， theatrical<br >manager and impresario.<br > In 1875 Carte put on Jacques Offenbach s comic opera La P&ichole at the<br >Royalty Theatre in Dean Street， Soho， where he was manager. It seems that<br >he originally hoped that the one-act French work would be accompanied by<br >a two-act opera composed by Arthur Sullivan. However， this was not ready<br >in time for the opening night on 30 January and Carte hastily substituted a<br >domestic comedy. Meanwhile， he looked around for another short musical<br >piece which would complete the bill and provide a popular evening s<br >entertainment.<br > One story has it that W. S. Gilbert happened to walk into Carte s office one<br >day early in January， another that the two men met in the street. However<br >it came about， their meeting was fruitful. Gilbert already had a one-act<br >operetta up his sleeve， the libretto of which he had shown to Carte the<br >previous summer. It was to prove the ideal companion to La POrichole.<br > Gilbert had first sketched out the bare bones of Trial by Jury in the 11 April<br >1868 issue of Fun， a magazine to which he regularly contributed humorous<br >verse， in 1873 he extended it into a full-scale libretto at the suggestion of Carl<br >Rosa， the opera impresario， who wanted to set it to music and stage it with<br >his wife， Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa， appearing in the leading role as the<br >plaintiff. However， the project was abandoned when Madame Rosa<br >suddenly died in January 1874.<br >