Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Massenet: Sapho

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Sapho (1897) is one of the least known of the thirty operas of Jules Massenet today, even though it was quite successful in its time. In some respects Sapho brings the story of his famous Manon up to date. The "Sapho" in question is one Fanny LeGrand, glamorous Parisian model, who poses for a painting of the poetess of antiquity. (Her name is usually spelled with two "p's.") Fanny is a femme fatale with a shady past. She ruins the life of a poor, innocent country bumpkin.

Massenet's Sapho had been performed at least eighty times by the year 1900. Fanny's role was crafted especially for the renowned diva, Emma Calve. In 1903 the composer played piano accompaniment for a gramophone recording of a scene from Sapho: the only audio document he ever made. He revised his score of Sapho, adding another entire act, for the 1908 revival of the opera at the Opera Comique of Paris.

That revived version of Sapho was recorded in its entirety in 1977 and reissued under the French Bourg label on two compact discs. Roger Boutry directs the Orchestre Symphonique de la Garde Republicaine and the Chorale Stephane Caillat. Starring as Fanny LeGrand is soprano Renee Doria.