In 1875, Richard D'Oyly Carte, then manager of the Royalty Theatre, commissioned Arthur Sullivan to set a one-act libretto by William Gilbert; this work, to be staged after each performance of Jacques Offenbach's (1819-1880) La Périchole, would become Trial by Jury. Gilbert adapted his libretto from his single-page "operetta" written in 1868 for the satirical magazine, Fun. Originally, the libretto was to be set by Carl Rosa, husband of Mme. Parepa-Rosa, a childhood friend of Gilbert. In 1874, Gilbert drew up the libretto, satirizing a breach-of-promise suit, but Parepa-Rosa fell ill and eventually died, her husband subsequently pulling out of the theater business. When Gilbert first read the text to Sullivan, he became increasingly disappointed with his work after each page, while Sullivan found it increasingly funny. Sullivan required only a few weeks to compose and rehearse the work. Trial by Jury was published in a piano-vocal score in June 1875.

Trial by Jury opened at the Royalty Theatre on March 25, 1875, and was exceptionally well received. (Its billing as "A Dramatic Cantata" certainly aroused critical interest.) The Times reported: "It seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain." Running for 200 performances, the piece became so popular that impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte leased the Opéra Comique and assembled a company dedicated to the production of Gilbert and Sullivan stage works. (Six years later, the Savoy Theatre would be built with the same purpose in mind.) With Trial by Jury, Gilbert and Sullivan began to establish a British comic theater tradition.

Gilbert's absurd plot concerns Angelina, the Plaintiff, who sues Edwin for damages because he broke his promise to marry her. Angelina must persuade the court that her loss has been immense, but Edwin, who is now "Another's love-sick boy," tries to convince the Jury he would be a worthless husband. The Judge falls in love first with a bridesmaid, then with Angelina, whom he marries. Realistic sets and bridal costumes only amplify the farcical circumstances in which there are no romantic leads and no real love.

Trial by Jury stands out among Gilbert and Sullivan's works because there is no spoken dialogue, making it more an opera buffa than an operetta. Trial by Jury is, indeed, a succession of recitatives, arias, and ensembles, but the style of the music and satire make it pure operetta, despite the realism of the court setting.

Opening numbers in Trial by Jury are clearly indebted to Offenbach and Lecocq, but the atmosphere changes as the Learned Judge enters, the music taking on a Handelian tone. (In the opening run, the part of the Judge was played by Sullivan's brother, Frederic.) In his entrance number, "When I, good friends, was called to the bar," the Judge explains his rise to a high position. Sullivan was careful to set the dense text in such a way that every word is intelligible. In "He'll tell us how he came to be a judge" and "A nice dilemma we have here" we hear parodies of ensembles by Handel and the bel canto burlesque in the style of Bellini. "A nice dilemma" bears a strong relationship to the ensemble, "D'un pensiero," from the first-act finale of Bellini's La sonnambula. Sullivan deliberately sets the text of "A nice dilemma" awkwardly to parody the guitar-like accompaniment of the stereotypical Italian ensemble.

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