Gilbert and Sullivan's eighth collaboration, Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant, opened on 5 January 1884 at the Savoy Theatre and ran for 246 performances. To create the libretto, Gilbert turned to a play he had written in 1870 entitled The Princess, and reused much of that play's dialogue and retained its three act structure but he wrote new lyrics for Sullivan to set. Sullivan provided some of the best music he ever wrote for the Savoy.

Both the play and the opera draw on characters and incidents in Tennyson's blank verse narrative poem, The Princess, which had been published in 1847.

Prince Hilarion has been married in babyhood to Princess Ida, daughter of King Gama. The Princess, however, has set up a college for women from which all men are barred. Hilarion and his friends infiltrate the castle and ultimately the men, led by Hilarion's father, King Hildebrand, stage a full-scale invasion. Ida is abandoned by her women and finally surrenders to her Prince.