The Princess (W. S. Gilbert play) College, the first university-level women's college in Britain, had been established at the University of Cambridge in 1869. However, by the time Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated on "Princess Ida" in 1883, a women's college was a well-established concept. Westfield College, London's first women's college, had opened in 1882 and is cited as a model for Castle Adamant, the women's college in "Princess Ida". The lyrics to the songs in "The Princess" were set to popular tunes from popular operetta and grand opera of the time, including works by Hervé and Jacques Offenbach. The three young men are played by women,
Sullivan and Gilbert Jerome and Donna English. Subsequent productions followed. This is not the only show about the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. A 1938 Broadway show, "Knights of Song", tells the story of the partnership, as do the musicals "The Savoyards", by Donald Madgwick (1971) and "Tarantara Tarantara", by Ian Taylor (1975), and the films "The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan" (1951) and "Topsy-Turvy" (1999). In December 1890, near the end of their collaboration, and still estranged by their famous carpet quarrel, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan have neither seen nor spoken with each other in months. Now they must supervise