Editing Princess Ida (section)

==Musical and textual analysis==
The opera [[satirize]]s [[feminism]], [[women's college|women's education]] and [[Charles Darwin|Darwinian]] [[evolution]], all of which were controversial topics in conservative [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[England]].  In the 15 years between the time that Gilbert wrote ''The Princess'' and the premiere of ''Princess Ida'', the movement for women's education had gained momentum in Britain, with the founding of [[Girton College]] (1869) and [[Newnham College, Cambridge|Newnham College]] (1871) at the [[University of Cambridge]]; and [[Somerville College, Oxford|Somerville]] (1878) and [[Lady Margaret Hall]] (1878) at the [[University of Oxford]]. [[Westfield College]], a women's college in [[Hampstead]], London, opened in 1882.

As in ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]'' and ''[[Iolanthe]]'', the two previous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, ''Princess Ida'' concerns the war between the sexes.  In ''Patience'', the aesthetic-crazed women are contrasted with vain military men; in ''Iolanthe'', the vague and flighty fairies (women) are pitted against the ineffective, dim-witted peers (men); and 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).  ''Princess Ida'' is one of several Gilbert plays, including ''[[The Wicked World]]'', ''[[Broken Hearts]]'', ''[[Fallen Fairies]]'' and ''[[Iolanthe]]'', where the introduction of males into a tranquil world of women brings "mortal love" that wreaks havoc with the status quo.<ref>[https://www.gsarchive.net/other_gilbert/broken_hearts/intro.html Introduction to ''Broken Hearts''], {{dead link|date=April 2019|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive''. Retrieved 10 March 2009.</ref> Stedman calls this a "Gilbertian invasion plot".<ref>Stedman (p. 95): In "a Gilbertian invasion" plot, outsiders change a tranquil society, as where the Thespians take control of Olympus in ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]'', and the Flowers of Progress remodel Utopia in ''[[Utopia, Limited]]''.</ref>

Sullivan's score is majestic, and a sequence of songs in Act II, sometimes known as the "string of pearls",<ref name=Walbrook>[https://www.gsarchive.net/books/walbrook/chap9.html Walbrook's analysis of the music and libretto]</ref> is particularly well loved.  Sullivan used chromatic and scalar passages and key modulations throughout the score, and commenters have called the Act II quartet "The World Is But a Broken Toy" one of Sullivan's "most beautiful, plaintive melodies."<ref name=Ainger226/> It has also been called "[[Gounod]]esque".<ref>Review in ''The Manchester Guardian,'' 28 September 1954, p. 5</ref> Although Gilbert's libretto contains many funny lines,<ref name=Walbrook/> the [[iambic pentameter]] and three-act structure tend to make ''Ida'' more difficult to stage effectively than some of the other Savoy Operas.  In addition, modern audiences sometimes find the libretto's dated portrayal of sex roles, and the awkward resolution of the opera, unsatisfying.  It is also curious, after the string of successes that the partnership had experienced with [[George Grossmith]] and [[Rutland Barrington]] in starring roles, to choose a theme that relegated them to comparatively minor roles.<ref name=Allen/>