Editing Princess Ida (section)

{{Short description|1884 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan}}
{{about|the Gilbert & Sullivan opera|the video game character|Monument Valley (video game)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2013}}
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[[File:Souvenir advertisement for Princess Ida by Alice Havers - Page 1.jpg|alt=three young men in medieval costume climb over a wall|right|thumb|350px|"[[#Musical numbers|Gently, gently]]": Hilarion, Cyril, and Florian break into Castle Adamant: cover of 1884 souvenir programme by [[Alice Havers]]]]
{{Italic title}}'''''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant''''' is a [[comic opera]] with music by [[Arthur Sullivan]] and a [[libretto]] by [[W. S. Gilbert]]. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen; the next was ''[[The Mikado]]''. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the [[Savoy Theatre]] on 5 January 1884 and ran for 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. Prince Hilarion, to whom she was betrothed in infancy, sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise themselves as female students but are discovered, and all soon face a literal war between the sexes.

The opera [[satirize]]s [[feminism]], [[women's college|women's education]] and [[Charles Darwin|Darwinian]] [[evolution]], which were controversial topics in conservative [[Victorian era|Victorian]] England. ''Princess Ida'' is based on a [[narrative poem]] by [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] called ''[[The Princess (Tennyson poem)|The Princess]]'' (1847), and Gilbert had written a farcical [[The Princess (play)|musical play]], based on the poem, in 1870. He lifted much of the dialogue of ''Princess Ida'' directly from his 1870 farce. It is the only [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] opera in three acts and the only one with dialogue in [[blank verse]].

Though its original run was modestly profitable, by [[Savoy opera]] standards ''Princess Ida'' was not considered a success, partly because of a particularly hot summer in London in 1884, and it was not revived in London until 1919. Nevertheless, the piece is performed regularly today by both professional and amateur companies, although not as frequently as the most popular of the Savoy operas.