Princess Ida

Creation

Next, Gilbert looked to satirize the emancipation of women. Fourteen years previously, he had written a play on Lord Tennyson's poem The Princess. He took his old play, and turned it into the libretto for Princess Ida. The libretto was kept in blank verse form, like Lord Tennyson's poem. Gilbert had the outline of the operetta at the end of 1882. Sullivan agreed to write the music.

Sullivan, being the procrastinator that he was, waited until the last minute to start writing the music, and worked on it day and night, until he finished it. January 4, 1884, the day before Princess Ida was to open, Sullivan was in pain from what he called "acute muscular rheumatism of head and neck". The next day, he wrote in his diary:

"Resolved to conduct first performance of new opera at night, but from the state I was in it seemed hopeless. At 7 p.m. had another strong hypodermic injection to ease the pain & a strong cup of black coffee to keep me awake -- managed to get up and dressed & drove to the theatre more dead than alive… Tremendous house- usual reception. After the performance I turned faint and could not stand- was brought home by… Carte etc. and put to bed in dreadful pain." Princess Ida is the only three-act operetta Gilbert and Sullivan ever wrote.

Plot Synopsis

Princess Ida opens on a chorus of courtiers. They are looking out for King Gama, who is to bring his daughter Princess Ida to King Hildebrand's court today. Princess Ida was married at the age of one to Prince Hilarion, King Hildebrand's son. Hilarion is nervous about meeting his wife, who he hasn't seen for the twenty years that they've been married.

Eventually, Gama comes with his sons Arac, Guron, and Scynthius, but with no princess. King Gama tells Hildebrand that the princess with 100 girls has shut herself in a country house, and has started a women's university. He tells Prince Hilarion:

“Perhaps if you address the lady
Most politely, most politely-
Flatter and impress the lady,
Most politely, most politely-
Humbly beg and humbly sue-
She may deign to look on you,
But your doing you must do
Most politely, most politely!”

Hildebrand gives Hilarion permission to seek the Princess Ida. He throws Gama and his sons in prison as hostages.

Act two opens in a courtyard of Castle Adamant, Princess Ida's castle. Lady Blanche deals out punishments to the students. Then the princess makes a speech. The ladies depart to class.

Into the now empty courtyard, enters Hilarion and his friends Cyril and Florian, over the walls. They see three academic robes, left out to dry, and put them on. Thus dressed as maidens, they request places at the school from Princess Ida (now, how could she not see that they were men? Also, didn't she wonder where they got the academic robes before they were admitted to the school?) She grants them entrance after they promise not to marry any man, and love the maidens at school better then any man. They agree cheerfully to these rules. The Princess Ida then leaves the new students.

Then who walks in, but Florian's sister, the Lady Psyche? Afraid that Psyche will recognize him on her own, Florian reveals himself to her. She remembers Cyril and Hilarion as being her early playmates. She explains how the girls are taught that man, having sprung from an ape, is ape at heart. Melissa, Lady Blanche's daughter, overhears the conversation. She has never seen a man before, and is amazed. She promises to keep their secret.

Just when Melissa is about to follow the gentlemen out of the courtyard, Lady Blanche enters, and asks her to stay. She says the new students are so maidenly and skilled (sarcastically) and such good singers. Melissa agrees.

“Blanche: Humph! It's very odd. Two are tenors and one is a baritone.
Melissa: They've all got colds!
Blanche: Colds! Bah! D'ye think I'm blind? These "girls" are men in disguise.
Melissa: Oh no- you wrong these gentlemen- I mean- why, see, here is an etui dropped by one of them, containing scissors, needles and-
Blanche: Cigars! Why these are men!”

Melissa succeeds in convincing her mother to keep the gentlemen's secret, because if they succeed in their mission, Lady Blanche would be the head of the school. Just then the lunch bell rings, and all the girls gather.

Cyril gets a bit tipsy, and sings an old kissing song, and kisses Lady Psyche. Hilarion slaps him. Cyril calls him Hilarion, and asks what he has done wrong. Princess Ida realizes that they are men (finally). She puts herself between them and the ladies. She falls into the river, and Hilarion saves her life. Then she orders them to be imprisoned.

Melissa enters and exclaims that men have broken down the entrance of the castle, and have entered. King Hildebrand gives Ida until tomorrow to decide if she would rather fight, or release Hilarion and be his wife. Her three brothers "just thought they'd mention" that if she refuses to release Hilarion, they'll be hung.

Act three opens on the ladies preparing for battle. As Melissa puts it:

“Thus our courage all untarnished,
We’re instructed to display:
But to tell the truth unvarnished,
We are more inclined to say,
“Please you do not hurt us”…
But t’would be an error
To confess our terror,
So, in Ida’s name
Boldly we exclaim:
Death to the invader…”

Princess Ida comes in. When she sees they are armed with axes instead of guns ("we left them in the armory for fear they'd go off"), the surgeon doesn't want to heal the wounded in practice, the band "don't feel well", and there is no gun powder, she sends the women out in disgust.

King Gama comes in with a suggestion from Hildebrand to put Hilarion, Cyril, and Florian against her brothers Arac, Guron, and Synthius. She at length agrees. Hilarion, Cyril, and Florian win, therefore she is Hilarion's wife. Melissa prepares to marry Florian, and Lady Psyche- Cyril. The curtain closes on a happy scene, yet again.

Public Reception

Princess Ida was not very successful, only running for 246 performances. In 1884, when degrees were granted routinely to women at colleges, making fun of educated women was not found that funny to most of society.

The operetta did continue to be replayed in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company until WWII, when the sets and costumes fell victim to a bomb.

Personally, I really like Princess Ida. The music is very good, and the words are witty. It does make a little fun of women, but it also makes a little fun of men as well, so that doesn't bother me very much.

Never Again...

Three weeks after opening night, Sullivan wrote that he "told Carte of my resolve not to write any more 'Savoy' pieces." Sullivan felt that he was "at the end of his tether" for those kinds of pieces. He felt that writing the music to operettas was taking away from his writing of "important" pieces, like symphonies, operas, and oratorios.