Editing Princess Ida (section)

==Background==
===Genesis===
[[File:The Princess - W. S. Gilbert.png|Scene from Gilbert's 1870 play, ''[[The Princess (play)|The Princess]]'': Hilarion and his companions, disguised as women (but played by women impersonating men) meet Princess Ida and her students.|thumb|right|350px]]
''Princess Ida'' is based on [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s serio-comic [[narrative poem]] of 1847, ''[[The Princess (Tennyson poem)|The Princess: A Medley]]''. Gilbert had written a [[blank verse]] musical farce [[Victorian burlesque|burlesquing]] the same material in 1870 called ''[[The Princess (play)|The Princess]]''. He reused a good deal of the dialogue from this earlier play in the libretto of ''Princess Ida''.  He also retained Tennyson's blank verse style and the basic story line about a heroic princess who runs a women's college and the prince who loves her.  He and his two friends infiltrate the college disguised as female students.<ref name=Scott>[http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/tenn/tenn2.html Scott, Patrick.  "Tennyson, Interpreter of Mid-Victorian Britain",  1992 exhibit on Tennyson's works, including "The Princess"]</ref> Gilbert wrote entirely new lyrics for ''Princess Ida'', since the lyrics to his 1870 farce were written to previously existing music by [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]], [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]] and others.<ref name=Ainger219>Ainger, p. 219</ref>

Tennyson's poem was written, in part, in response to the founding of [[Queen's College, London]], the first college of women's higher education in the United Kingdom, in 1847.<ref name=Scott/> When Gilbert wrote ''The Princess'' in 1870, women's higher education was still an innovative, even radical concept.  [[Girton College]], one of the constituent colleges of the [[University of Cambridge]], was established in 1869.  However, by the time Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated on ''Princess Ida'' in 1883, a women's college was a more established concept. [[Westfield College]], the first college to open with the aim of educating women for [[University of London]] degrees, had opened in [[Hampstead]] in 1882.<ref>[https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/722449ea-5a2b-3008-a75b-2a5b4337e1d6 "Westfield College Papers"], JISC Archives Hub, accessed 15 July 2021</ref> Thus, women's higher education was in the news in London, and Westfield is cited as a model for Gilbert's Castle Adamant.<ref>Janet Sondheimer (1983). ''Castle Adamant in Hampstead'' {{ISBN|0-904188-05-1}}; a history of the college.</ref>

Increasingly viewing his work with Gilbert as unimportant, beneath his skills and repetitious, Sullivan had intended to resign from the partnership with Gilbert and [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] after ''[[Iolanthe]]'', but after a recent financial loss, he concluded that his financial needs required him to continue writing [[Savoy operas]].<ref name=Ainger219/> Therefore, in February 1883, with ''Iolanthe'' still playing strongly at the Savoy Theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan signed a new five-year partnership agreement to create new operas for Carte upon six months' notice.<ref>Baily, p. 251</ref> He also gave his consent to Gilbert to continue with the adaptation of ''The Princess'' as the basis for their next opera.<ref name=Ainger219/> Later that spring, Sullivan was [[British honours system|knight]]ed by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] and the honour was announced in May at the opening of the [[Royal College of Music]]. Although it was the operas with Gilbert that had earned him the broadest fame, the honour was conferred for his services to serious music.<ref>Jacobs, p. 162</ref> The musical establishment, and many critics, believed that Sullivan's knighthood should put an end to his career as a composer of comic opera – that a musical knight should not stoop below [[oratorio]] or [[grand opera]].<ref name=Baily250>Baily, p. 250</ref> Having just signed the five-year agreement, Sullivan suddenly felt trapped.<ref>Jacobs, p. 188</ref>

By the end of July 1883, Gilbert and Sullivan were revising drafts of the libretto for ''Ida''.<ref>Stedman, p. 198</ref> Sullivan finished some of the composition by early September when he had to begin preparations for his conducting duties at the triennial Leeds Festival, held in October. In late October, Sullivan turned his attentions back to ''Ida'', and rehearsals began in November.<ref name=Ainger224>Ainger, p. 224</ref> Gilbert was also producing a one-act drama, ''[[Comedy and Tragedy]]'', and keeping an eye on a revival of his ''[[Pygmalion and Galatea (play)|Pygmalion and Galatea]]'' at the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum Theatre]] by [[Mary Anderson (actress, born 1859)|Mary Anderson]]'s company.<ref>Stedman, pp. 199-200</ref> In mid-December, Sullivan bade farewell to his sister-in-law Charlotte, the widow of his brother [[Fred Sullivan|Fred]], who departed with her young family to America, never to return. Sullivan's oldest nephew, [[Herbert Sullivan|Herbert]], stayed behind in England as his uncle's ward, and Sullivan threw himself into the task of orchestrating the score of ''Princess Ida''.<ref name=Ainger224/> As he had done with ''Iolanthe'', Sullivan wrote the [[overture]] himself, rather than assigning it to an assistant as he did in the case of most of his operas.<ref name=Ainger225>Ainger, p. 225</ref>

===Production===
[[File:Rosina Brandram as Lady Blanche.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Rosina Brandram|Brandram]] as Blanche]]
''Princess Ida'' is the only Gilbert and Sullivan work with dialogue entirely in blank verse and the only one of their works in three acts (and the longest opera to that date). The piece calls for a larger cast, and the [[soprano]] title role requires a more dramatic voice than the earlier works. The American star [[Lillian Russell]] was engaged to create the title role of ''Princess Ida'', but Gilbert did not believe that she was dedicated enough, and when she missed a rehearsal, she was dismissed.<ref>Stedman, pp. 200-01</ref> The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's usual female lead, [[Leonora Braham]], a light [[lyric soprano]], nevertheless moved up from the part of Lady Psyche to assume the title role. [[Rosina Brandram]] got her big break when [[Alice Barnett]] became ill and left the company for a time, taking the role of Lady Blanche and becoming the company's principal [[contralto]].<ref name=Ainger224/>

The previous Savoy opera, ''Iolanthe'', closed after 398 performances on 1 January 1884, the same day that Sullivan composed the last of the musical numbers for ''Ida''. Despite gruelling rehearsals over the next few days, and suffering from exhaustion, Sullivan conducted the opening performance on 5 January 1884 and collapsed from exhaustion immediately afterwards.<ref>Ainger, pp. 225-26</ref> The reviewer for the ''[[Sunday Times]]'' wrote that the score of ''Ida'' was "the best in every way that Sir Arthur Sullivan has produced, apart from his serious works....  Humour is almost as strong a point with Sir Arthur... as with his clever collaborator...."<ref>''[[Sunday Times]]'', 6 January 1884, p.5</ref> The humour of the piece also drew the comment that Gilbert and Sullivan's work "has the great merit of putting everyone in a good temper."<ref>''The Times'', 7 January 1884, p. 7</ref> The praise for Sullivan's effort was unanimous, though Gilbert's work received some mixed notices.<ref name=Allen>Allen, pp. 207-08</ref>

===Aftermath===
Sullivan's close friend, composer [[Frederic Clay]], had suffered a serious [[stroke]] in early December 1883 that ended his career. Sullivan, reflecting on this, his own precarious health and his desire to devote himself to more serious music, informed Richard D'Oyly Carte on 29 January 1884 that he had determined "not to write any more 'Savoy' pieces."<ref name=Ainger226>Ainger, p. 226</ref> Sullivan fled the London winter to convalesce in [[Monte Carlo]] as seven provincial tours (one with a 17-year-old [[Henry Lytton]] in the chorus) and the U.S. production of ''Ida'' set out.<ref>Ainger, p. 229</ref>

[[File:Ida men.gif|right|thumb|250px|[[W. S. Gilbert|Bab]] illustration for ''Princess Ida'']]
As ''Princess Ida'' began to show signs of flagging early on, Carte sent notice, on 22 March 1884, to both Gilbert and Sullivan under the five-year contract, that a new opera would be required in six months' time.<ref>Jacobs, p. 187</ref> Sullivan replied that "it is impossible for me to do another piece of the character of those already written by Gilbert and myself."<ref>Crowther, Andrew. [http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/articles/html/quarrel.html "The Carpet Quarrel Explained"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006084921/http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/articles/html/quarrel.html |date=6 October 2014 }}, The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 28 June 1997, accessed 17 February 2013</ref> Gilbert was surprised to hear of Sullivan's hesitation and had started work on a new opera involving a plot in which people fell in love against their wills after taking a magic lozenge – a plot that Sullivan had previously rejected. Gilbert wrote to Sullivan asking him to reconsider, but the composer replied on 2 April that he had "come to the end of my tether" with the operas:
{{quote|...I have been continually keeping down the music in order that not one [syllable] should be lost.... I should like to set a story of human interest & probability where the humorous words would come in a humorous (not serious) situation, & where, if the situation were a tender or dramatic one the words would be of similar character."<ref>Ainger, p. 230</ref>}}

Gilbert was much hurt, but Sullivan insisted that he could not set the "lozenge plot". In addition to the "improbability" of it, it was too similar to the plot of their 1877 opera, ''[[The Sorcerer]]'', and was too complex a plot. Sullivan returned to London, and, as April wore on, Gilbert tried to rewrite his plot, but he could not satisfy Sullivan. The parties were at a stalemate, and Gilbert wrote, "And so ends a musical & literary association of seven years' standing – an association of exceptional reputation – an association unequalled in its monetary results, and hitherto undisturbed by a single jarring or discordant element."<ref>Ainger, p. 232</ref> However, by 8 May 1884, Gilbert was ready to back down, writing, "...am I to understand that if I construct another plot in which no supernatural element occurs, you will undertake to set it? ... a consistent plot, free from anachronisms, constructed in perfect good faith & to the best of my ability."<ref name=Ainger233>Ainger, p. 233</ref> The stalemate was broken, and on 20 May, Gilbert sent Sullivan a sketch of the plot to ''[[The Mikado]]''.<ref name=Ainger233/>

A particularly hot summer in London did not help ticket sales for ''Princess Ida'' and forced Carte to close the theatre during the heat of August. The piece ran for a comparatively short 246 performances, and for the first time since 1877, the opera closed before the next Savoy opera was ready to open.<ref>Ainger, p. 236</ref> ''Princess Ida'' was not revived in London until 1919.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 136–38 and ''passim''</ref> Some of these events are dramatised in the 1999 film ''[[Topsy-Turvy]]''.<ref>[[Richard Schickel|Schickel, Richard]]. [https://archive.today/20130205081000/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,992991,00.html "Cinema: ''Topsy-Turvy''"], [[Time (magazine)|Time]], 27 December 1999, accessed 31 July 2016</ref>
[[File:Darwin sexual caricature.gif|thumb|upright=1.0|left|Caricature of [[Charles Darwin]] contemplating a [[bustle]], in ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]'', 1872]]