Sapho (Massenet) ("lyric play", an opera in a declamatory style) in five acts. The music was composed by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Cain and Arthur Bernède, based on the novel of the same name by Alphonse Daudet. It was first performed on 27 November 1897 by the Opéra Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris with Emma Calvé as Fanny Legrand. A charming and effective piece, the success of which is highly dependent on the charisma of its lead soprano, it has never earned a place in the standard operatic repertory. Performance history In its first production in 1897 Sapho was presented in a heavily truncated form of four tableaux, due to the limited availability of Calvé, as well as the approaching death of Daudet (who was a close friend of Massenet), and the acting deficiencies of the tenor Lepestre, who was playing the romantic lead role of Jean Gaussin. The climactic scene in which Gaussin forces Sapho to burn letters from her former lovers had to be omitted. In April 1898 the tableau de l'oasis was added and some other additions were made to the score. In this initial run at the Opéra-Comique, the opera received 42 performances. The letter scene was restored in a revised version in 6 tableaux, first performed on 22 January 1909 at the Salle Favart. The revival was produced by Albert Carré with decor by Amable and Lucien Jusseaume and costumes by Félix Fournery, and featured Carré's wife Marguerite Carré, who carried the show. It was revived again on 17 May 1916 and 23 February 1935 and had received a total of 126 representations by the time of its last performance at the Opéra-Comique in 1936. The opera was first performed outside France on 14 April 1898 in Italian at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. This was followed by performances in 1898 in Geneva and 1899 in Lisbon, Alexandria, Algiers, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Bucharest. It was later given in Antwerp (1901), The Hague (1903), and Brussels (1903). Beginning on 17 November 1909 the opera was presented in New York by Oscar Hammerstein at his Manhattan Opera House. It was sung in French with the popular Mary Garden as Fanny Legrand, but her performance was considered a disappointment. It was the third Massenet opera to be presented there within a ten-day period, the other two being Hérodiade (also a New York premiere) and Werther. It was revived in a concert performance at Carnegie Hall on 23 January 1979 with Elisabeth Söderström as Fanny Legrand. Harold C. Schonberg, writing in The New York Times, commented: It was fun to hear this dated piece, but the chances are that not many impresarios will be rushing to revive it. "Sapho" is, like so many of Massenet's operas, superbly professional. He wrote well for the voice, orchestrated expertly, knew exactly what he was doing. He well knew how to tickle his audience, and could be outrageously sentimental – as he is in the last act of "Sapho," with the solo violin weeping away in the famous Massenet kind of treacle. "Sapho" is a collation, with its quotes (deliberate) from other operas, its touch of folk music, its in-and-out dances, its opportunities for vocal and histrionic display. It is a "vehicle," ... and sopranos must love it. The opera was also performed at Wexford Festival Opera in 2001 and at the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne in 2003. Roles Synopsis Place: Paris Time: late 19th century The story concerns the beautiful Sapho, an artist's model of a certain age