Synopsis
Act 1
Princess Ida was betrothed as a baby to Prince Hilarion and now that she is twenty-one, she is expected at the court of King Hildebrand.
Hilarion is anxiously waiting to see his bride for the first time in twenty years and wonders just how she may have changed.
Her father, King Gama, arrives with her three brothers but no Princess. She has gone to rule a wonen's University in Castle Adamant and has rejected the male sex completely.
King Hildebrand holds King Gama and his sons hostage until Ida agrees to marry Hilarion.
Act 2
The graduates of Princess Ida's University are seen at their studies. In a quiet corner, however Prince Hilarion, accompanied by two friends, Cyril and Florian, come is search of the Princess and intends to woo her with sweet words and deeds.
After climbing the University walls they find some academic robes and are trying them on for size when Princess Ida comes upon the scene. They decide to carry on the pretence but they are cought by one of the tutors, Lady Psyche - Florian's sister.
She promptly takes a liking to Cyril and agrees to keep their secret, but they are again found out - this time by Lady Blanche's daughter, Melissa.
Melissa, having never seen men before decides that they are much better than she had previously been told and falls in love with Florian.
Having watched the men with Melissa and Psyche, Lady Blanche also guesses the secret but she too agrees to remain silent since, with the Princess out of the way, she would rule the University.
Towards luncheon time, all the graduates and staff gather for a picnic. Cyril get rather tipsy and lets the cat out of the bag.
Ida is horrified and in shock staggers backwards and unfortunately falls into the castle stream. Hilarion heriocally jumps in and saves her.
Rather than being grateful, Ida orders Hilarion and his friends to be bound and taken into custody.
Just as they are being led away, King Hildebrand arrives with some of his men to intimidate the Princess into submission. The act ends with Ida defiantly resisting the Kings threats.
Act 3
We see the ladies graduates in a fighting mood, but underneath they are timid and really don't want to fight. Ida decides she will fight Hildebrand and his men by herself since all have deserted her.
King Gama arrives, bringing a message from Hildebrand suggesting that Gama's sons should fight Hilarion and his friends, to decide once and for all whether Ida should remain single or should marry Hilarion! She reluctantly agrees and the combatants assemble for the final battle...
Background
Princess Ida is unique amongst all of the G&S operas in several ways.
Gilbert was always drawing from his previous writings for plots - generally the Bab Ballads which he wrote for a magazine called "Fun".
For Princess Ida he drew from a play he had written called "The Princess" - a lot of the dialoge is the same in both pieces.
Even the play itself was a parody of Alfred Lord Tennyson's long poem of the same name!
A couple of other unique features of Princess Ida is that is is written completely in blank verse and is arranged over three Acts isntead of the usual two.
When origianlly written however it was made up of a Prologue and 2 Acts.
All the music however was completely original and is considered to be amongst the best music Sullivan wrote.
