A Battle of the Sexes in ‘Princess Ida’ at East Hampton

The battle of the sexes will break out into open warfare when the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island brings its 2023 production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s classic “Princess Ida” to East Hampton Library on Saturday, May 6, at 2 p.m.

“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, and its score in particular regarded as perhaps Sullivan’s greatest. 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 century, 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.

In the new production of the opera, Kara Vertucci plays Princess Ida and Joseph Anthony Smith plays Prince Hilarion, with Barry Mastellone as King Gama and Ben Salers as King Hildebrand. The director of the production is Gayden Wren, and the music director is Leonard Lehrman.

“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.

“Ultimately this is a story of generational conflict, of young people trying to get past the mistakes and hatreds of their parents, trying to forge a new world they might actually live in together.” Wren concluded. “When people ask me what it’s about, I say it’s about a prince, a princess and an arranged marriage ... but also about climate change, racial and ethnic rivalries, inequality, social justice and pretty much anything else that’s going on in the world today. It’s funny, it’s beautiful, but there’s no Gilbert & Sullivan story that’s more directly relevant to the world of today.”

Princess Ida will be presented on Saturday, May 6, at 2 p.m. at the East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street in East Hampton. Admission is free. For further information, call 631-324-0222 or visit easthamptonlibrary.org.