Princess Ida premieres at the Savoy Theatre

Background. Princess Ida is based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1847 narrative poem The Princess. Gilbert had written a farcical musical play based on the poem in 1870, and he lifted much of the dialogue of Princess Ida directly from that farce. Because the 1870 farce's lyrics had been written to previously existing music by Offenbach, Rossini and others, Gilbert wrote entirely new lyrics for Princess Ida. By 1883, a women's college was a more established concept: Westfield College, the first college opened to educate women for University of London degrees, had opened in Hampstead in 1882. 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.

Premiere. The previous opera, Iolanthe, closed on 1 January 1884, the same day Sullivan completed the music for Ida. Despite gruelling rehearsals and exhaustion, Sullivan conducted the opening performance on 5 January 1884. He collapsed immediately after the show. The piece ran for 246 performances, closing before the next opera was ready, a first since 1877.

Reception. 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. The plot was judged too complex and too similar to the 1877 opera The Sorcerer. Provincial tours of Princess Ida began in early 1884 and ended by mid-1885. In the midst of the unusually hot summer, Carte closed the Savoy Theatre for a month starting in mid-August 1884.