Sapho: Charles Gounod's First and Failure Opera

Charles Gounod, French composer of 12 operas. His most popular, still highly performed to this day are Faust and Roméo et Juliette. These were made later in his career, after multiple commercially failing operas. The first one was Sapho.

Premiering on the 16th of April, 1851 at the Salle Le Peletier opera house, home of the Paris Opera until its destruction in 1873, Sapho is an opera in 3 acts. In its initial run the opera only ran 9 times and was only accepted by the Paris Opera due to the influence of Pauline Viardot, a mezzo-soprano who originated the role of Sapho. The opera was later edited to both a 2 act and 4 act version, achieving 48 runs.

Part of the reason for it not doing well very likely stims from the fact that it was not a grand opera. A grand opera is what you likely think of when hearing the word opera, with lavish, large scale designs and orchestras, and no spoken dialogue. Grand operas were the very popular, very successful norm at the time. Sapho, however, is an opéra lyrique, a smaller scale and more intimate opera. Remember, while most operas are grand, not all operas are grand operas. 

So what exactly is Sapho about? Well, as implied from the name, Sapho is based on the story of the Greek poet Sappho, as well as Phaon and Sappho's suicide. Before anyone says anything, this opera was written by a man in 1850s France, it's straight.

Despite it's commercial failure, Sapho  is praised for its third act, and it's composition. Though it will never live up to the fame, love, and performances of Faust, it still has an important history and gets the occasional performance. 

To anyone who wishes to hear some from it or perhaps watch it, I will give you links. Please enjoy. 

https://youtu.be/e-IzcNo0Xmc