Sapho (Gounod)

Viardot had a well-known interest in Greek literature, and Gounod himself, partly from his religious studies of biblical subjects, had become fascinated with the ancient world.

The legends concerning the Greek poet Sappho were selected for the story of the opera, not least because this would provide a suitably serious and impressive title role for Viardot.

The following day Gounod signed the contract, and on 6 April Urbain died, leaving behind a two-year-old child and a widow who was two-months pregnant, a distraught mother, and several unfinished architectural projects.

Pauline Viardot, who was in Germany performing, wrote and offered her house in Brie to Gounod as a tranquil retreat where he could focus on his composition as well as tend to the needs of his mother.

[6] Louis Viardot, Pauline's husband, had also offered money, presumably to help defray unanticipated expenses arising from Urbain's untimely demise.

[7] Pauline Viardot also asked the Russian poet Ivan Turgenev, with whom she had an increasingly intimate relationship and who was on the verge of returning to Russia, to remain in France and join Gounod and his mother in Brie in order to provide additional support and comfort.

I also believe that from his first appearance he will have enthusiastic admirers and great prestige as a musician with the general public; but fickle popularity, of the sort that stirs and leaps like a Bacchante, will never throw its arms around his neck.

His melancholy, so original in its simplicity and to which in the end one becomes so attached, does not have striking features that leave a mark upon the listener; he does not prick or arouse the listener—he does not titillate him.

Yet among that mass of talented composers who are witty in a vulgar sort of way, intelligible not because of their clarity but because of their triviality, the appearance of a musical personality such as Gounod's is so rare that one cannot welcome him heartily enough.

Among several suggested changes, was the use of the melody of Gounod's earlier "Chanson du pêcheur" for Sapho's final soliloquy "Ô ma lyre immortelle".

Gustave-Hippolyte Roger, who was originally intended to sing the lead tenor role of Phaon, also visited and found that his part was too insubstantial, so Augier was asked to make additions and more changes to his poem.

An exchange of a political document for sexual favors between Pythéas and Glycère caused a change in the line "prenez-moi pour amant" ("take me as a lover") to "traitez-moi tendrement" ("treat me tenderly").

[13] Beginning with the third performance a ballet with music by Édouard Deldevez was added after the opera, to send the audience away in a happier frame of mind, but it ended up making the evening far too long.

[14] Hector Berlioz, writing in the Journal des débats (22 April 1851), besides praising the music, was very positive about the subject of Gounod's opera: It seems I have the misfortune to be neither of my time nor of my country.

For me, Sapho's unhappy love and that other obsessive love of Glycera's and Phaon's error, Alcaeus' unavailing enthusiasm, the dreams of liberty that culminate in exile, the Olympic festival and the worship of art by an entire people, the admirable final scene in which the dying Sapho returns for a moment to life and hears on one side the last distant farewell of Phaon to the Lesbian shore and on another the joyous song of a shepherd awaiting his young mistress, and the bleak wilderness, the deep sea, moaning for its prey, in which that immense love will find a worthy tomb, and then the beautiful Greek scenery, the fine costumes and elegant buildings, the noble ceremonies combining gravity and grace — all this, I confess, touches me to the heart, exalts the mind, excites and disturbs and enchants me more than I can say.

[17] A later revision of the opera, presented by the Paris Opéra at the Palais Garnier from 2 April to 29 December 1884, expanded it to four acts, with Gabrielle Krauss in the title role, but had little more success.

The final number "Ô ma lyre immortelle" has been recorded by many great singers beginning with Félia Litvinne and Ernestine Schumann-Heink down to Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, and Marilyn Horne among others.