Marie Sasse
[1] Born Marie Constance Sasse in Oudenaarde, to a father who was a military band-master,[1][2] she studied music at the Ghent Conservatory with François-Auguste Gevaert and in Milan with Francesco Lamperti,[1][3] and made her debut in Venice as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto in 1852.
Sasse made her debut at that theatre using the stage name Marie Sax on 27 September 1859, performing Rosine (Countess Almaviva) in Mozart's Les noces de Figaro.
[2] One reviewer wrote: "Mlle Sax possesses a magnificent voice, but both as a vocalist and as an actress, she is in the state of raw material—material however of undeniable quality and extraordinary aptitude, and which will undoubtedly reward the discoverer. ...
It is fortunate that Mlle Sax's talents were discovered at an early stage as her voice is still fresh, and she has not been long enough in the exercise of her calling to form any vicious habits.
Everything is, therefore, in her favor, and, launched in her present school, time and experience will ere long render her a valuable acquisition to the lyrical stage.
[7] The version of the opera which was used in this landmark revival was especially prepared by the composer Hector Berlioz, who also coached and rehearsed the singers, with Camille Saint-Saëns as his assistant.
[13] Subsequently Sasse became rather famous for a question she asked Viardot at one of the rehearsals, during which in typical fashion Berlioz kept interrupting the proceedings to make suggestions: "That's Monsieur Gluck, isn't it?"
Although Viardot was the star of the show, Mlle Sax did not go entirely unnoticed, and the role proved to be the beginning of her rise to stardom.
[19] Sasse's success at the Théâtre Lyrique had been substantial, and she was engaged by the Paris Opéra to sing Alice in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, making her house debut in the role on 3 August 1860.
"[5] Richard Wagner himself selected her to perform Elisabeth in what would become the notorious Paris premiere of Tannhäuser on 13 March 1861 at the Opéra's Salle Le Peletier.
The author Richard Wagner She went on to successfully sing many of the important soprano roles in the company's repertoire at the time, including Léonore in Verdi's Le trouvère (the French version of Il trovatore) in 1861, Laura in Jósef Poniatowski's Pierre de Médicis in 1862, and Rachel in Halévy's La juive in 1863.
Verdi personally coached the singers, and wrote some new music, replacing Henri's "O jour de peine" with "O toi que j'ai chéri".
[21] In her memoirs Sasse described preparing the role with Verdi: I have always loved working with authors and composers listening to their instructions trying to grasp their meaning ... Ah, but it was not the same as singing to Wagner or Meyerbeer!
These lessons were of inestimable value to me, and, thanks to Verdi's counsel, my voice, still somewhat rough, became most flexible, and as a result of his teachings I achieved one of the greatest successes of my career.
He removed the original singer he had chosen for the part, the contralto Rosine Bloch, in order to spare her voice for the role of Fidès in a revival of Meyerbeer's Le prophète.
[27] Perrin wrote to Verdi about Guéymard: "If she commits herself firmly to undertake deep mezzo-soprano roles you might perhaps entrust her with the part of Eboli without changing a note of the tessitura, and we should gain by having two proven artists of incomparable cast.
Some reviews specifically mentioned that the voice of Morère in the role of Don Carlos was inadequate for the part and characterized Mme Sass's portrayal as "bored" and "listless".
Daniel Auber's La muette de Portici was performed "with the 'Marseillaise' interpolated into the third act and sung by Mme Sass with far more conviction than she had ever brought to Verdi's Elisabeth.
"[33] After the French defeat at Sedan, as Prussian troops began to approach Paris, plans were made to convert the nearly finished, but still unoccupied new opera house, the Palais Garnier, into an emergency hospital.
"[37] Draneht was in a bad position: the opera was completely cast, and, as the artist's fees had been exceptionally high, the budget for singers had been expended.
[36] The Viceroy, who had hired Italian architects to build the Cairo Opera House in six months in 1869, was underwriting the entire cost of the Aida production.
[36] W. E. Haslam, in his 1911 book Style in Singing, relates that Marie Sasse later stated that she had tried to prepare the role of Aida for the Cairo production, but found that at certain points the part was too high for her range.
"[24] During the course of her career Sasse had also sung the title role in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, and appeared in Brussels, Madrid, and Barcelona.
