Richard D'Oyly Carte was the manager of the Royalty Theatre in Soho, London. He was impressed by the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, and in 1875, he asked them to provide him with a curtain-raiser for Offenbach's "La Perichole". They wrote the one-act operetta "Trial by Jury", which soon became a big hit. He commissioned "The Sorcerer" in 1877, followed by "HMS Pinafore" a year later; following its success, he formed "Mr. D'Oyly Carte's Opera Company".
