Princess Ida Sullivan Festival. Princess Ida Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. "Princess Ida" opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a run of 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. The prince to whom she had been married in infancy sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise
Gilbert and Sullivan time by major opera companies, and recordings of the operas, overtures and songs from the operas continue to be released. Since 1994, the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival has been held every August in England, with some two dozen or more performances of the operas given on the main stage, and several dozen related "fringe" events given in smaller venues. The Festival records and offers videos of its most popular professional and amateur productions. In connection with the 2009 festival, a contemporary critic wrote, "The appeal of G&S’s special blend of charm, silliness and gentle satire seems immune to fashion."