Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island brings its 2023 production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s classic “Princess Ida” to the East Hampton Library on Saturday, May 6, at 2 PM.
Princess Ida — which debuted in 1884 at London’s Savoy opera, with book and lyrics by W.S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan — is a favorite with Gilbert & Sullivan aficionados. The current production is the Light Opera Company’s first since 2007.
More dramatic in tone than any other Gilbert & Sullivan work, the opera is set in Eastern Europe during the 14th or 15th centuries, and its story concerns the dynastic rivalry of two neighboring kings — notably King Gama of Hungary, whose daughter (the title character) has fled an arranged marriage to the son of King Hildebrand and instead set up a college for women, where she teaches the then-unthinkable principles of women’s rights and equality for all, regardless of rank, gender, wealth or nationality.
In the end the story boils down to whether the opera’s young people are doomed to grow into their parents, repeating all their mistakes, or if they can escape the machinations of their parents, move beyond hatred and violence, and forge a new future for themselves.
“Princess Ida is unlike any other Gilbert & Sullivan opera,” said Wren, a longtime member of the company and also the author of an acclaimed book about Gilbert & Sullivan. “It’s Shakespearean in its scope, and its humor — which combines farce, slapstick, satire and burlesque — is in the service of a story of unique emotional power. Ida and Hilarion are two sides of the same coin, young aristocrats who’ve been pawns in their fathers’ rivalry almost since they were born. The story pits them as enemies, but as the opera progresses they begin to see something of themselves in each other, and to sense the outlines of a future different from the one they’ve always been told awaits them.
Admission to the show is free.