A Princess of Kensington
An Original Comic Opera in Two Acts
Libretto by Basil Hood
First produced at the Savoy Theatre, London under the Management of William Greet on Thursday, 22nd January, 1903 for a run of 115 performances.
Background
Following the success of Hood and German's Merrie England, the management of the Savoy Theatre arranged for three new operas to be written by the same team, but following the relative failure of their next offering, A Princess of Kensington, which premiered in 1903, the hoped-for series never materialised.
In 1912, actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree proposed a reunion between the collaborators Hood and German to provide the score for a musical production based on the life of Sir Francis Drake, but German declined the commission feeling that its Elizabethan setting would merely result in recovering old ground already explored in Merrie England.
For information on this opera, I would suggest you visit the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive's page.
A Princess of Kensington has no complete recordings (or even near-complete), and aside from the original recordings, there are no professional recordings of selections. The only one that comes close is Royal English Opera's recording, with a total of seven selections. I would be happy to hear of more recordings (even just more selections!); please let me know if one should be added.
