Introduction

The operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan remain as popular now as they ever were when written over a century ago. In all, this most famous of musical collaborations produced fourteen operas. The most popular (“Iolanthe”, “Yeomen Of The Guard”, “The Mikado”, “The Gondoliers”, “Pirates of Penzance” and “HMS Pinafore”) are quite timeless and their themes remain pointed.

It is not surprising that within such a catalogue, there will be some titles that have not stood the test of time so well. Here, in “Princess Ida”, is one – an opera that had a relatively short initial run, an opera relegated to the “rarely performed” list, an opera after which the partnership almost disappeared.

The plot

The story revolves around two rival kingdoms – ruled by King Hildebrand and King Gama respectively. Twenty one years before, Hildebrand’s son Hilarion was engaged to be married to Gama’s daughter, Ida – and now is the time for this pledge to be honoured. There is great excitement in Hildebrand’s castle as Gama (twisted dwarf with a sarcastic wit), accompanied by his three sons (Arac, Guron and Scynthius – who are to say the least intellectually challenged), approaches but Ida is not with them. Gama explains that Ida has declared that she will have nothing to do with men and has set up a university in Castle Adamant for the education of like-minded young ladies. Hildebrand imprisons Gama and his sons while telling Hilarion to set out to claim Ida as his bride. Hilarion takes his two friends Florian and Cyril with him.

Meanwhile Act 2 opens in Castle Adamant with Ida and her two associates – Lady Blanche and Lady Psyche – teaching their students such subjects as Humanities and Abstract Science. Lady Blanche is ‘an older lady’ who is rather jealous of Ida and feels she should have that position. Hilarion, Cyril and Florian scale the walls and, finding some academic robes, disguise themselves as young ladies. They encounter Lady Psyche who is Florian’s sister and who immediately recognises the three as childhood playmates. They are overheard by Melissa – Lady Blanche’s daughter – who has never seen a man before. She is enchanted and agrees to keep their secret. Lady Blance immediately realises the ruse for she notes that when they sing “two sing tenor and one a baritone”. Melissa persuades her that if Hilarion can claim Ida it would remove her from the University and promote the Lady Blanche to her rightful place. Cyril gives the game away by getting drunk at dinner and singing a song about the delights of singing. In anger, Princess Ida storms away but falls into a lake. She is rescued by Hilarion but will not recant, ordering them to be thrown into prison.

Act 3 begins with news that an army is taking up positions outside to storm the castle. Princess Ida orders her ladies to take up arms but finds that they are unwilling to fight. King Gama then arrives with a message from King Hildebrand saying that he is reluctant to fight with women but he is prepared for Hilarion, Cyril and Florion to fight with Gama’s sons. This duel ensues with Hilarion triumphant. Ida realises that her cause is lost and agrees to yield to stop further bloodshed. She marries Hilarion while Cyril and Florian take the Lady Psyche and Melissa as their wives.

Gilbert and Sullivan history

The opera preceding this one, “Iolanthe” was a resounding success both in the UK and in America. However, Arthur Sullivan was increasingly aware that his high classical ideas were becoming more and more suborned by the operas comique. This was the time when Wagner was interesting a wider audience in Grand Opera and Sullivan always had a great admiration for “The Meistersingers of Nuremberg”.

Sullivan was knighted by Queen Victoria in May 1883.

As the time for a follow up work loomed, Gilbert resurrected an old idea of his (a magic lozenge that changed one person into another) which Sullivan had already rejected. Gilbert then suggested turning his old three act play “The Princess” into a comic opera. It is said that Sullivan only agreed because the story of the new opera would be less convoluted and “topsy-turvey” than previous works and that he realised that this type of composition could be counted upon to earn money.

The opera opened at the Savoy Theatre, London on January 5th 1884. Sullivan was taken ill at the end (he had kidney stones that caused repeated attacks of renal colic). He was given copious coffee and injections of morphine. His diary reports of the day “… driven back to the theatre more dead than alive. Tremendous house … usual reception … brilliant success. After performance I turned faint and could not stand”

The press did not agree and Gilbert was alarmed by first-night criticisms (“from every point of view the weakest”). Three weeks after the opening Sullivan wrote to D’Oyly Carte that he would not write any more comic operas.

Princess Ida ran for 246 performances but at that time there was no successor in preparation. Indeed Gilbert and Sullivan were barely communicating. It looked as if this was to be the end of the partnership.

The background

Gilbert was always aware of the topics and controversies of the day. Princess Ida is his take on the education of women and is a satire on the Women’s Rights Movement in general.

Some years earlier he had written a three act play which in its turn had been inspired by an epic poem “The Princess” (Prologue; Cantos I – VII; Conclusion (5)) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The last four lines of that poem are quoted in the final act of the opera. In his play Gilbert pointed fun at the concept of a ladies’-only college to which men were strictly redundant. However, it is clear that even at the time that Princess Ida was first performed this concept was already out of date and several Universities were awarding degrees to women students. Curiously though, Gilbert would probably have recognised that “the Battle of the Sexes” rages unabated even if the subject of the skirmishes has changed from education to other matters.

This opera is unusual in the Gilbert and Sullivan cannon as it preserves the three acts of the original play. The spoken dialogue is also in verse.

The songs

This is a work where you feel that you know the tunes as they come around although there are few “stand-out” songs. It is on reflection that you realise that the full flowering of these motifs are found elsewhere in the catalogue.

The quite short overture starts with a fast paced upbeat flourish but then concentrates on the quieter more reflective themes from the opera. The quote in the title of this article comes from the seminal anti-male couplet sung by Lady Psyche to the chorus of graduates at the beginning of Act II. (“Towards the empyrean heights”) It is a response to a question from one of the students: “Pray you, tell us if you can, what’s the thing that’s known as man’. The full reference reads:

“Man is coarse and Man is plain …
Man is more or less insane …
Man’s a ribald … Man’s a rake …
Man is Nature’s sole mistake”

The following songs are particularly noteworthy:

“If You Give Me Your Attention” - King Gama (the ‘de riguer’ introductory patter song)
“For A Month To Dwell In A Dungeon Cell” - Arac, Guron, Scynthius

The words and music of these songs are to be found on the Web Opera Pages of the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
(Clicking on the midi file on that page should open your media player and start the melody. To return here close the media player and then press the [BACK] button of your browser)

Stage performances

After the initial run, Princess Ida did not reappear on the stage again until 1922. It then lay fallow again until the 1950s.

Prior to researching this review, I knew nothing of Princess Ida apart from the King Gama song mentioned above. I am not aware of any recent professional stage performances.

Continued in column 2...

Other resources

This two-disc box set is part of the complete set of operas recorded by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and released by DECCA. John Reed gives a creditable account of the grizzled King Gama – you can almost hear him leer in that ‘celebrated sneer’. The other soloists are in good voice and the orchestra is in its usual sparkling form.

The second CD is completed with a performance of the Pineapple Poll ballet suite. This is a pot pourri of snatches of tunes taken from the operas and put together into a short (45 minute) dance story in three scenes. Mackerras notes that it was not unusual for Sullivan to recycle motifs himself. The whole work is a good ‘music quiz’ for Savoyards and the insert booklet identifies the individual sources for when you get stuck.

PRINCESS IDA - Gilbert & Sullivan (1965)
The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Soloists: John Reed (King Gama); Philip Potter (Hilarion)
Donald Adams (Arac); Elizabeth Harwood (Princess Ida)
Christene Palmer (Lady Blanche); Geoffrey Skitch (Florian)
Kenneth Sandford (King Hildebrand) Valerie Masterson (Melissa)

PINEAPPLE POLL – Sullivan, arranged: Mackerras (1982)
The Philharmonia Orchestra: Conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
CD: LONDON 414145-2

LIBRETTO

“Princess Ida” or “Castle Adamant”
International Music Publications Ltd. £ 4.99

I studied a copy of the text from the Gilbert and Sullivan archive. There are also comparative texts available on the internet which hold “Princess Ida” side by side with Gilbert’s original play “The Princess”.

THE VIDEO

This is the only recorded “Princess Ida” that I know of. It is taken from a full series of specially staged productions (originally by the BBC in 1982) which is offered both a single DVDs and as a boxed set from Amazon (America). These are currently available only as Region 1 discs. As far as I am aware there is no other complete set of performances.

“Princess Ida” is presented as a play-within-a-play, performed at a Victorian country house party. The soloists and chorus work courageously with the material but this is one of the weaker stagings within this series. The guest artist is Frank Gorshin (1933 - 2005) – best known for his role as The Riddler in the TV series “Batman” – as King Gama. Largely confined to a wheeled bath chair, he is suitably made up with facial lumps, bad teeth and a crooked gait. He gives a competent account of the patter songs.

As with the rest of the series each act is introduced by Douglas Fairbanks Junior introduces each act with a short anecdote. There is also a short glimpse of Gilbert’s house and estate at Grim’s Dyke near Harrow. There is also a “Life and Times Of Gilbert and Sullivan” storyboard on the DVD.

“PRINCESS IDA” (2002) Acorn Media DVD AMP5378

G&S trivia spot

One of the most famous of all Savoyards, Sir Henry Lytton (1867 – 1936) made his first appearance in this opera. His wife, Louise Henri was in the chorus. It is said that as a young man he had taken a few days off school without permission to get married to her.

Footnote

The first version of this article originally appeared on CIAO on April 2nd 2003.

References

1. Sir Arthur Sullivan (detail of a portrait by John Millais, 1888; National Portrait Gallery, London): Student Britannica
2. W.S. Gilbert: The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
3. Original D'Oyly Carte 'Princess Ida' Poster: The Gilbert & Sullivan Archive
4. King Gama inspects the women: The Gilbert & Sullivan Archive
5. "The Princess"; Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Poems: The Other Pages
6. John Reed as King Gama: Memoires of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
7. Frank Gorshin: NNDB: tracking the entire world
8. Sir Henry Lytton: Memoires of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

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Page added - December 2nd 2005
Last updated - April 26th 2019

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