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Arts & Entertainment

Princess Ida - Simsbury Light Opera

  • Simsbury Light Opera presents Princess Ida

We are so excited to let you know that we are performing Princess Ida this month!! 
Escape the cold, sit back and let us transport you to 19th Century Hungary where an adorable princess thinks men are unnecessary and WOMEN should be in charge!!!  :)

The question is - - Will Prince Hilarion be able to win her heart???

Princess Ida is a comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan written in 1884 that satirizes feminism, women’s education, and Darwinian evolution, which were controversial topics in conservative Victorian England.  The Princess opens a women’s university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. Disguised as women, the prince (to whom the princess had been married in infancy) and two of his buddies sneak into the school to try to collect his bride.  They are soon discovered and all soon face a literal war between the sexes.

Princess Ida is based on a narrative poem by Alfred Tennyson called The Princess (1847). Gilbert had written a farcical musical play, based on the poem, in 1870. He lifted much of the dialogue of Princess Ida directly from his 1870 farce. It is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera in three acts and the only one with dialogue in blank verse.

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