Anyone who has read W.S. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads" knows that he was not a man free of prejudices. His negative sentiments about blacks and Jews, perhaps acceptable in his time, cause consternation today. But Gilbert seemed to save his most articulate putdowns for women. There are many instances in the operettas where he was almost abusive toward the older, larger woman portrayed by the contralto. Sullivan seemed to always negate that vituperation by assigning some of his most poignant melodies to these poor ladies. But it should not be surprising that Gilbert would write an opera making fun of the then still novel notion that women would desire to get a college education.

Gilbert based the libretto on a play that he had written in 1870, which he described as a "respectful perversion" of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Princess." In many ways, he attempted to write a light opera of a more serious, or at least satirical, nature than had been common before then. Sullivan also was desirous of more serious outlets, having been invited to conduct at the Leeds Festival and asked to write a second symphony for the event.

Written in blank verse and divided into three acts, the opera was premiered on January 5, 1884. It did not prove to be as lasting a success as some of the other operas, although it did have a respectable run of 246 performances. As always with these two artists, there are many wonderful numbers and moments in Princess Ida, but Gilbert's mean-spiritedness and antediluvian attitude concerning women could not be mitigated by Sullivan's lively and lovely music.

Sullivan declared that he would not write another light opera after this one, and Gilbert's attempts to get him to collaborate on a story about a magic lozenge were repeatedly rebuffed. Fortunately, at just the right moment (according to legend), a large Japanese sword fell off the wall in Gilbert's study leading him to create the libretto of his and Sullivan's greatest offspring, The Mikado.



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