Scottish Opera Trial By Jury & A Matter of Misconduct Festival Theatre Edinburgh 30th May 2025 Review
Scottish Opera “Trial by Jury” and “A Matter of Misconduct”, a double bill of comedy operettas at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh tonight was obviously a double-hit with this audience tonight, even though 150 years separated the two of them.
First on the bill was Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury”, a new co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park. This one act work was the first G & S work performed by D’Oyly Carte Opera in 1875 and it was not only a big success, but the work that set the formula for much of what was to come from this partnership in the years to come.
I have to admit here to not always being a Gilbert & Sullivan fan, but when, as tonight, the work is well produced and well performed, I can appreciate why so many people across the world like their work and why their music and dialogue are never out of production by amateur and professional companies. Somewhere in the world, a G & S show is performed roughly every 20 minutes.
Gilbert & Sullivan were often subversive in their work, taking every opportunity to lampoon established figures and the establishment itself, and “Trial by Jury”, with its court case brought by a young woman wanting compensation for breach of promise from the man who promised to marry her, has many comedic moments in it, including the obviously hugely incompetent judge himself, performed here by Richard Suart.
Unfortunately for me though, even updating this work to a Jerry Springer style television show called “Trial by Jury” cannot hide the fact that this work and its attitude towards women is very much of its time and is often at odds with what many of us would now deem to be acceptable. The other problem that this work has is the same one that so many G & S works now have. That is that a lot of the comedy, in particular the in its day, often scathing satire, is simply lost on contemporary audiences. We simply do not have the references to appreciate their subtlety and sharpness.
Having said the above, this was still a well performed work by everyone on stage and it provided the perfect balance for what was to come in the second half of tonight’s show.
“A Matter of Misconduct”, a new commission with D’Oyly Carte Opera, is a one act contemporary response to “Trial by Jury”. With music by Toby Hession and libretto by Emma Jenkins, this is the tale of a high powered lawyer making her very expensive services available to the powerful elite who can afford them. Here, she is dealing in a world of political scandal and corruption in a very funny work that, with references that everyone in this audience seemed to understand, is in its own way what G & S were doing 150 years ago with “Trial by Jury”. Inadvertently though, this work of contemporary satire simply for me highlights the problem that few things date more rapidly than comedy satire and the underlying problem that “Trial by Jury” has.
Scottish Opera Emerging Artist singers Kira Kaplan, Chloe Harris, Ross Cumming and Edward Jowle performed in both works tonight and it was interesting to see how they were able to fit so easily into their very different characters. Good solid performances from all four people here, highlighting just how important this programme is to the future of Scottish Opera. Jamie MacDougall also gave a very good performance as a government special advisor in “A Matter of Misconduct”.
Comparing both old and new works directly to each other is perhaps a bit unfair in some respects as they were both written for very different times and very different audiences. There is no way that G & S would ever have got away with some of the language and body part references of the new work. Also the shift in how woman are represented was very different and the let-down bride to be, Angelina, of “Trial by Jury” could not have been more different in character from senior law firm partner Sylvia Lawless in “A Matter of Misconduct”.
At the end of the night, this update to “Trial by Jury” and the newly commissioned “A Matter of Misconduct” was obviously the humour tonic that this audience wanted.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
First on the bill was Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury”, a new co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park. This one act work was the first G & S work performed by D’Oyly Carte Opera in 1875 and it was not only a big success, but the work that set the formula for much of what was to come from this partnership in the years to come.
I have to admit here to not always being a Gilbert & Sullivan fan, but when, as tonight, the work is well produced and well performed, I can appreciate why so many people across the world like their work and why their music and dialogue are never out of production by amateur and professional companies. Somewhere in the world, a G & S show is performed roughly every 20 minutes.
Gilbert & Sullivan were often subversive in their work, taking every opportunity to lampoon established figures and the establishment itself, and “Trial by Jury”, with its court case brought by a young woman wanting compensation for breach of promise from the man who promised to marry her, has many comedic moments in it, including the obviously hugely incompetent judge himself, performed here by Richard Suart.
Unfortunately for me though, even updating this work to a Jerry Springer style television show called “Trial by Jury” cannot hide the fact that this work and its attitude towards women is very much of its time and is often at odds with what many of us would now deem to be acceptable. The other problem that this work has is the same one that so many G & S works now have. That is that a lot of the comedy, in particular the in its day, often scathing satire, is simply lost on contemporary audiences. We simply do not have the references to appreciate their subtlety and sharpness.
Having said the above, this was still a well performed work by everyone on stage and it provided the perfect balance for what was to come in the second half of tonight’s show.
“A Matter of Misconduct”, a new commission with D’Oyly Carte Opera, is a one act contemporary response to “Trial by Jury”. With music by Toby Hession and libretto by Emma Jenkins, this is the tale of a high powered lawyer making her very expensive services available to the powerful elite who can afford them. Here, she is dealing in a world of political scandal and corruption in a very funny work that, with references that everyone in this audience seemed to understand, is in its own way what G & S were doing 150 years ago with “Trial by Jury”. Inadvertently though, this work of contemporary satire simply for me highlights the problem that few things date more rapidly than comedy satire and the underlying problem that “Trial by Jury” has.
Scottish Opera Emerging Artist singers Kira Kaplan, Chloe Harris, Ross Cumming and Edward Jowle performed in both works tonight and it was interesting to see how they were able to fit so easily into their very different characters. Good solid performances from all four people here, highlighting just how important this programme is to the future of Scottish Opera. Jamie MacDougall also gave a very good performance as a government special advisor in “A Matter of Misconduct”.
Comparing both old and new works directly to each other is perhaps a bit unfair in some respects as they were both written for very different times and very different audiences. There is no way that G & S would ever have got away with some of the language and body part references of the new work. Also the shift in how woman are represented was very different and the let-down bride to be, Angelina, of “Trial by Jury” could not have been more different in character from senior law firm partner Sylvia Lawless in “A Matter of Misconduct”.
At the end of the night, this update to “Trial by Jury” and the newly commissioned “A Matter of Misconduct” was obviously the humour tonic that this audience wanted.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com