Editing Princess Ida (section)

===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>