page_title: Sapho (Gounod)
section_title: Performance history
hierarchical_section_title: Sapho (Gounod) / Performance history
caption_attribution_description: English: Set design sketch by Edouard Despléchin for the last scene of the opera Sapho by Charles Gounod for the original production at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 16 April 1851
context_page_description: Sapho is a 3-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Émile Augier which was premiered by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was presented only 9 times in its initial production, but was a succès d'estime for the young composer, with the critics praising Act 3 in particular. It was later revived in 2-act and 4-act versions, achieving a total of 48 performances.
context_section_description: The opera finally opened on 16 April 1851. The sets were designed by Charles Séchan and Édouard Desplechin, and the mise en scène was by Leroy. Although there was some indulgence for a composer's first work, and many in the audience found much to like, the opera did not do well.  The music was unusual for its time, and focused on the psychological drama between Sapho and Glycère. The diverse elements and historical subject matter of grand opera were missing, and some critics complained about the absence of a ballet. In some respects, it seemed a throwback to the style of Christoph Willibald Gluck rather than an advancement over Giacomo Meyerbeer. Beginning with the third performance a ballet with music by Edouard Deldevez was added after the opera, to send the audience away in happier frame of mind, but it ended up making the evening far too long.
  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.
  Unfortunately, also unlike Meyerbeer, the inexperienced Gounod had failed to ensure that the principal singers would be available for an extended run. Viardot had accepted other engagements for the latter part of May. Her sixth and last performance was on 12 May, when she was replaced by Elisabeth Masson. However, even when Viardot was appearing, receipts were only in the range of 4000 frances, about half of what they would have been for a performance of Le prophète or La juive. Probably more significant were "structural weaknesses" in the opera itself. The pace was considered too slow and the declamatory sections too long.
  Later productions were not much more successful. Sapho received a single performance at London's Covent Garden on 9 August 1851 with Viardot as Sapho, and a Paris revival on 26 July 1858 at the Opéra, which compressed the work to two acts, was presented only ten times.
  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. A new character, Pittacus, was introduced; the composer conducted the first three performances of the 29-performance run. The score of this version was never published, but Augier included the libretto in the first volume of his Théâtre complète.
  The opera received its American professional premiere on November 18, 2018, at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C.. Washington Concert Opera presented the work, with Kate Lindsey in the title role.
caption: Design sketch by Édouard Desplechin for the final scene in the original 1851 production of Sapho
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