Copy of the costume design by Wilhelm (William Charles John Pitcher) for Arac, Gurun, and Scynthius in the 1884 original production of Princess Ida.
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118759338
Gilbert described Princess Ida as a ‘respectful perversion’ of The Princess by Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate. In “The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs” it states that Princess Ida is ‘fake feminism with a vengeance but it makes for a very entertaining opera’. Of their fourteen operettas Princess Ida was the eighth. It opened at the Savoy Theatre on the 5th January 1884 and it ran for 246 performances. Princess Ida closed without another operetta opening immediately after it. After its first run in 1884 the Savoy theatre did not produce it again until 1919. It is the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in three acts and the only one with dialogue in blank verse. At the time of writing, Gilbert was aware of the emancipation of women. Women were beginning to be allowed to work towards a degree and some women were starting to request suffrage for women. The plot involves a princess who founds a woman’s university, (Girton College was established in 1869 and also in Hampstead a college had opened in 1882 with the aim to educate women for University of London degrees) and she teaches that women are superior to men, and they should be the rulers. A prince, to whom she had been married in infancy, disguises himself as a woman so he can collect his bride.
Front cover of the production by The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust at the Mayfair Theatre in Dunedin from 28th October - 4th November 2006.
Owned by website owner.
The Colonist newspaper dated 29th April 1884 mentions Princess Ida. It states ‘ occurs the following sarcastic chorus, which is rendered by a number of girl graduates, dressed in costly brocaded academical gowns of various hues :- Man is course, man is plain; Man is more or less insane; Man’s a ribald, man’s a rake; Man is Nature’s sole mistake’.
Princess Ida was scheduled to be performed at the end of 1883. Sullivan, in October was conducitng at the Leeds Festival. According to Leslie Bailey in his book ‘The Gilbert and Sullivan Book’ Sullivan “his enthusiasm and musicianship had moved mountains since those early days when as a young man he first set out to travel the land with his baton: he had certainly raised the standard of good music among the working-class and business-class of the provinces. In his choirs the mill-hands and mill-owners, the coal miners and the coal-owners, the shop assistants and the shop owners, the clerks and the businessmen rubbed shoulders and they sang with the greatest soloists of the land”. Sullivan had hoped to write his 2nd Symphony for the Leeds festival however he was unable to work on it due to his composition of Princess Ida.
Sullivan worked extremely hard to get the score ready in time for the first performance. Four days prior to the opening night he had two songs to write. He had to have an injection to ease the pain of a kidney infection before conducting the orchestra at the opening night.
After completing Princess Ida, Sullivan did not wish to continue writing the score for the operettas with Gilbert even though Gilbert, Doyly Carte and Sullivan had signed a contract in February 1883. This contract gave Carte a licence for the performance at the Savoy Theatre of all operas composed by Gilbert and Sullivan. Carte agreed to paying Gilbert and Sullivan one-third of the profits from the staging of the operettas once costs had been deducted. Sullivan felt that his melodies were becoming repetitive and that his music was merely supporting Gilbert’s libretto and not being able to stand as an entity in its own right. He also had been knighted in 1883 and he felt that he should not be writing music for comic operas.
Richard D’Oyly Carte By Ellis & Walery - Cellier, François; Bridgeman, Cunningham (1914) Gilbert and Sullivan and their operas; with recollections and anecdotes of D'Oyly Carte & other famous Savoyards, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101064927
Sir Arthur Sullivan By Ellis & Walery - Cellier, François; Bridgeman, Cunningham (1914) Gilbert and Sullivan and their operas; with recollections and anecdotes of D'Oyly Carte & other famous Savoyards, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101064921
Sir William Gilbert By Ellis & Walery - Cellier, François; Bridgeman, Cunningham (1914) Gilbert and Sullivan and their operas; with recollections and anecdotes of D'Oyly Carte & other famous Savoyards, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101064923
Sullivan had spent time in Europe after finishing Princess Ida and on his return to the UK Gilbert proposed a plot for a new operetta which Sullivan refused to compose the music for. After Gilbert had visited a Japanese exhibition in London, he decided to use the Japanese culture as the basis for his new operetta. The Auckland Star dated 7th March 1884 mentions that ‘the subject of the new opera on which Sir Arthur Sullivan is at work is Japanese. It will be produced in the Spring at the savoy Theatre. London, England’.
From the Evening Star dated 24th April 1884
Some newspapers, such as the Fielding Star dated 12th February 1884 state that ‘Gilbert and Sullivan’s new opera, “Princess Ida” was produced in London on January 5th. It was an instantaneous success”.
On the 1st March 1884 there is an article in the Auckland Star about the newest Gilbert and Sullivan production, Princess Ida. It states that ‘the reports as to tis merits are conflicting’. One critic had apparently said that it was not as original as “Patience” or “Pinafore” however others felt that the libretto is the cleverest that Gilbert has ever written, and it is witty and humorous. The songs are praised as being charming and memorable. According to the article it said, ‘on the opening night, the hit of the play was made by three knights in armour – Arac, Guzon and Scynthius – who brought the house down with their song’. There is a much longer article in the same paper two days later concerning “Princess Ida”. The reviewer of the operetta is of the opinion that the music is the stronger element stating, ‘never have common-place lyrics been more exquisitely set’. The reviewer goes on to mention that the staging is a very important component of the operetta. On the 4th April the same newspaper mentions that there is a rush to obtain seats for Princess Ida, according to the newspaper ‘hundreds are being turned away from the doors of the Savoy Theatre nightly’.
The Marlborough Daily Times of the 15th March 1884 has a lengthy piece on Princess Ida. According to the reviewer ‘everything of course is splendidly put upon the stage, but there is a feeling of tameness and lack of originality; nevertheless, the house is crowded and it is said must be booked many weeks in advance. Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted the first night, but immediately after the performance became so unwell that he had to be taken home. Fortunately the complaint proved not be to be serious, and he is now completely recovered’.
From the Lyttelton Times 22nd April 1890
The New Zealand Herald dated 22nd March 1884 echoes the above view by saying that the Princess Ida ‘does not seem to have been worthy of either poet or composer. The fun is said to be forced and the music to be deficient in brightness and liveliness’.
By the 24th April 1884 Princess Ida music scores available to buy in New Zealand. There is a vocal and pianoforte score, quadrilles and lancers, valses and polkas and fantasias to purchase.
On the 10th May 1884 the Te Aroha News informs that the score of Princes Ida had been published the week before and that the first edition was no longer available. According to the writer they felt that Princess Ida would be the most popular of the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The manager of the Savoy ‘says that his takings for the three weeks ending February 9th were £413 more than for the same three weeks of Iolanthe and £1.025 more than the same three weeks of Patience’. Tickets for the reserved seats were having to be printed three weeks in advance.
In July 1884 a group of Maori, who had been visiting London, went to a production of Princess and Ida and apparently they were impressed by the spectacle.
The Evening Post dated 9th August 1884 has a short article concerning Princess Ida being performed in New York. According to the newspaper, the operetta had been a disastrous failure and both companies that were performing it were called in.
An interesting article in the Evening Post dated 27th September 1884 states ‘a novel use of the electric light was lately made at the Savoy Theatre, where the whole of the company were photographed upon the stage in the costumes of “Princess Ida” beneath the rays of two powerful arc lights”.
From the South Canterbury Times 19th July 1886
The New Zealand Herald of the 4th October 1884 informs the reader that it ‘seems to have lost its attractive power at the Savoy Theatre, and the house has been temporarily closed’. And the Otago Witness dated 11th October 1884 mentions that as well, saying that the artistes are having a holiday for a month or two. The Sorcerer was being held in readiness ‘in case anything is wanted before the new piece is completed’,
In the Evening Post on Thursday 4th December 1884, it states that Princess Ida had been withdrawn from the Savoy the previous Saturday. The Sorcerer and Trail by Jury had been its replacement. Sir Arthur Sullivan had conducted both operettas in front of an ‘immense house’.
By 3rd January 1885 the Evening Post informs that J. C. Williamson, actor and manager, has obtained the Australasian rights of all of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, including “Princess Ida”, the revised “Sorcerer” and the new work. There was work already commencing on the making of the wardrobes for the operettas, “Iolanthe” and “Princess Ida”.
The Timaru Musical and Dramatic Society performed Princess Ida at the Theatre Royal in August 1886. This was the first time it had been performed in Australasia. The article states that the March of the Amazons was very popular. Princess Ida was produced in Auckland in May 1897.
References
The Gilbert and Sullivan Book Leslie Bailey published by Spring Books 1952
The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs Ivan March Edward Greenfield and Robert Layton published by Penguin 1996
www.paperspast.natlib.nz