Trial by Jury

This film consists of a double bill of HMS Pinafore and Trial by Jury. IMDb lists them separately but I want to review them together because you need to know that, if you watch this film, you will get a damp squib of a Pinafore together with a firecracker of a Trial by Jury.

The productions are by Opera Australia although they are performed, not as operas but as musicals with the singers wearing radio mikes. This is not of itself particularly intrusive although its does mean that some of the roles are taken by actors with non-operatic voices. The role of Little Buttercup is performed by an actress who is better known in Australian soap operas. Her rasping delivery is painful to the ear.

The film flaunts the fact that it was recorded in front of a live audience but one or two clumsy edits suggest that it has been cobbled together from several performances. I have only ever been to the opera once in Australia (La Périchole in Sydney, if you must know) but I do not recall that they left the houselights on during the performance. This film constantly cuts to shots of the audience applauding or laughing with the lights on. This suggests that it was recorded like a situation comedy with the audience being told to laugh and applaud before the show began and then those shots being intercut with the actual performance.

Pinafore is imaginatively staged. I like the start below decks, the ladies gaily tripping from a container that has been hoist aboard and admiral arriving covered in buoyancy aids. However the singing, by both the chorus and principals is lacklustre and does not match the imaginativeness of the production.

I don't know what they put in the interval drinks but, after this, with many of the same cast, Trial by Jury is a revelation. This is Gilbert and Sullivan's early, one act opera and I had always thought of it as an apprentice piece. But in this production it is revealed to have some of Gilbert's most piercing lyrics and some of Sullivan's best music. Sullivan was a master of pastiche and it is a joy to hear his mock Handel with the judge singing "Let me speak" being drowned by the chorus singing "Let him speak". We move on to mock Offenbach "Tink-a-tank, Tink-a-tank" before a Rossinian pastiche in the sextet "A nice dilemma". Trial by Jury is also the only G&S that I have heard that has recitatives instead of spoken dialogue.

This mischievous production is in modern dress. There is an excellent male chorus of jurymen (this was written in 1875) and a vivacious female chorus of journalists. David Hobson is the defendant, a flash young man in a breach of promise action. The jury give him short shrift, assiduously reading The Sun as he gives his evidence. They are more attentive to the plaintiff, attractively played and sung by Ali McGregor. Only the Judge, played by Anthony Warlow with a fake Scottish accent, is a slight disappointment.

This comes over as a remarkably fresh satire for a piece written 130 years ago. Although we no longer have actions for breach of promise we are still accustomed to judges falling asleep on the bench and being over-impressed by the fragrance of female witnesses. Some of the dialogue has been made more racy "Is this the court of the exchequer? Be firm, be firm my pecker" and some has been toned down so that the defendant's reference to thrashing his fiancée has been changed to "trashing". I think it is also unacceptable to trash your fiancée but with WS Gilbert, as with Wagner, you have to take the good with the bad.

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...

I like Gilbert and Sullivan very much, the stories to some of their operettas may be a little on the silly side but the lyrics and dialogue are always full of wit and the music is beautiful. I have seen a production of Trial By Jury before, the 1982 D'Oyly Carte production, which was one of the better productions of a very hit and miss series. But I found myself loving this Opera Australia production more, and of the two productions together on the DVD(the other being Opera Australia's HMS Pinafore, which I also enjoyed) I found this the superior production also.

The opera is updated to contemporary business clothes here, but because there was nothing specifically tacky or ugly about it that wasn't an issue, and the courtroom setting was very pleasing and looked like a courtroom. The orchestral playing is full of energy which is ideal for Gilbert and Sullivan, and apart from taking things too fast in Comes the Broken Flower the conducting is just as sprightly. The chorus balance beautifully and don't resort to mugging. The staging always has something interesting going on and doesn't feel dull or stage-bound. The singing is also fine. I personally found Anthony Warlow the best performer in Trial By Jury, the Scottish accent is perhaps not as authentic as it could have been(though he deserves credit for the effort) but he more than makes up for it by a generous, characterful baritone voice-even if he sounds deliberately and again credibly older than Pinafore-, good technique and understanding of the G&S style. He also acts with hilarious sincerity and has no problem with the physical side of the role either. John Bolton-Wood and Richard Alexander come to life even more so than they did in Pinafore, and while one wishes Andrew Jones had a bigger considering how great a voice he has he sings beautifully regardless. David Hobson is a vocally assured and dashing Defendant and Ali McGregor has a lovely voice and is warmer in presence than Tiffany Speight I feel.

Overall, a wonderful performance, well worth catching. 10/10 Bethany Cox