page_title: Sapho (Massenet)
section_title: Synopsis
hierarchical_section_title: Sapho (Massenet) / Synopsis
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Emma Calvé, dans Sapho, à l'Opéra Comique
context_page_description: Sapho is a pièce lyrique 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.
context_section_description: Place: Paris
  Time: late 19th century
  The story concerns the beautiful Sapho, an artist's model of a certain age and notorious life, whose real name is Fanny Legrand. She begins an affair with a young man, Jean Gaussin, but the relationship, as is so often the case in opera, is ill-fated.
caption: Emma Calvé as Sapho (painted by Théobald Chartran)
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