Organization

Conductor

John Wilson

Singer

Soprano

Sophie Bevan

Contralto

Catherine Wyn-Rogers

Bethany Horak-Hallett

Mezzo-soprano

Marlena Devoe

Baritone

Simon Butteriss

Bass-baritone

Robert Hayward

Charles Rice

Tenor

Benjamin Hulett

Nick Pritchard

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Southbank Centre

Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant

London

United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Princess Ida, or Castle Adamant: Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

In its season finale, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment presents conductor John Wilson’s fresh take on Gilbert and Sullivan’s thorny 1884 comic opera.


We venture to the semi-fictional world of Princess Ida, who has forsworn men and set up a women-only university at Castle Adamant.

But her childhood betrothed, Prince Hilarion, is determined not to be denied his ‘right’.

He enters the University in disguise with two friends. What follows is a series of battles between the sexes, as each camp attempts to settle matters in their favour.

Sullivan produced some of his most sublime music in this opera, including the so-called ‘string of pearls’ in Act II, featuring the exquisite quartet ‘The world is but a broken toy’. 

This alternate reality is, of course, a thinly disguised Britain in the grip of social upheaval.

Based on Tennyson’s notably progressive poem ‘The Princess’, Gilbert’s plot sits against the backdrop of the emerging women’s rights movement and advances in women’s education.

Liberal and conservative causes were both considered fair targets for the writer’s satire, raising interesting questions for us as time travellers encountering the work.

English

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