Princess Ida
or
Castle Adamant
"Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant" opened January 5, 1884 at
the Savoy Theatre and ran for 246 performances). This is
the only one of the G&S operas written in three acts
and in blank verse. It is based on a long Tennyson poem and
an earlier Gilbert farce.
This eighth G&S opera follows Iolanthe and again
concerns the war between the sexes. In Iolanthe, the vague
and flighty fairies (women) are pitted against the
ineffective, dim-witted peers (men). In Ida, overly serious
students and professors at a women's university (women)
defy a marriage-by-force ultimatum by a militaristic king
and his testosterone-laden court (men). Sullivan's score is
majestic, and some people consider that Gilbert's libretto
contains some of his funniest lines.
The story of the opera is driven by the love of Prince
Hilarion for Princess Ida, daughter of King Gama, to whom
he had been married in babyhood. The Princess, however, is
absorbed by her ideals and responsibilities as head of a
women's college which endeavors to educate women to be the
ruling sex. Her husband and his friends infiltrate the
castle and ultimately the men, led by Hilarion's father,
King Hildebrand, stage a full-scale invasion. The princess
is ultimately unsuccessful in her noble aims, and in the
end surrenders to her prince.