HMS Pinafore/Trial by Jury at College Light Opera Company

In their first two major successes, Gilbert and Sullivan, encouraged by the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, established their winning formula of convoluted comic plots, sometimes biting satire, moments of sentiment and elegantly crafted, memorable music. Gilbert drew on his own legal training for the one-act Trial by Jury (originally paired with Offenbach’s La Périchole), while in HMS Pinafore the British class system and naval bureaucracy are mocked in sparkling fashion.