Gilbert and Sullivan was dedicated enough, and when she missed a rehearsal, he dismissed her. "Princess Ida" was the first of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas that, by the partnership's previous standards, was not a success. A particularly hot summer in London did not help ticket sales. The piece ran for a comparatively short 246 performances and was not revived in London until 1919. Sullivan had been satisfied with the libretto, but two months after "Ida" opened, Sullivan told Carte that "it is impossible for me to do another piece of the character of those already written by Gilbert and myself." As "Princess
Gilbert and Sullivan but he was unable to obtain financing for the project. In early 1876, Carte requested that Gilbert and Sullivan create another one-act opera on the theme of burglars, but this was never completed. Carte's real ambition was to develop an English form of light opera that would displace the bawdy burlesques and badly translated French operettas then dominating the London stage. He assembled a syndicate and formed the Comedy Opera Company, with Gilbert and Sullivan commissioned to write a comic opera that would serve as the centrepiece for an evening's entertainment. Gilbert found a subject in one of his own