(Leader, MONTAGUE BREARLEY)
Conductor, STANFORD ROBINSON
Princess Ida was the Gilbert and Sullivan opera which immediately preceded The Mikado. The music was as charming as ever, the text as witty, but for some reason the public did not, after tTie first few months, fill the theatre as, with the earlier operas, they had never failed to do. Actually, therefore. Princess Ida had one of the shortest runs of any opera in the series. This was a great disappointment for everybody concerned, and it was at this time that Sullivan declared his intention of composing music for no more of these operas. Happily he was persuaded to abandon this dreadful intention, for the next production at the Savoy Theatre was to be the most successful of all the works of these brilliant collaborators, The Mikado.