About the work
One-act "dramatic cantata" (comic opera) by Arthur Sullivan and William Schwenck Gilbert, first performed on 25 March 1875 at the Royalty Theatre, London, as a curtain-raiser for Offenbach's "La Périchole". It was the pair's second collaboration, and its success laid the foundation for their later partnership under producer Richard D'Oyly Carte; Gilbert had already published the source story as a poem some years earlier.
Plot
A breach-of-promise suit is tried before the Court of Exchequer: the defendant Edwin openly admits he left the plaintiff Angelina because she had become tiresome to him. Despite their own moral failings, the judge and jury sympathise with the jilted bride – until the judge himself offers to marry Angelina to resolve the case.
Cultural significance
The work is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera sung entirely through, without spoken dialogue. Its satire of the legal system and male double standards is regarded as one of the pair's most formally unified pieces.