Saffò is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Pacini on a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on a play by Franz Grillparzer, after the legend of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho.
The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, on November 29, 1840, and was also performed in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien on March 15, 1842. It was frequently performed during the 19th century, and occasionally during the 20th century. Notable reviv...
more
Saffò is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Pacini on a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on a play by Franz Grillparzer, after the legend of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho.
The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, on November 29, 1840, and was also performed in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien on March 15, 1842. It was frequently performed during the 19th century, and occasionally during the 20th century. Notable revivals took place at the San Carlo in Naples on April 7, 1967, with Leyla Gencer and at the Wexford Festival in 1995.
During the Poetic Games at the 42nd Olympiad (about 608 BC) a woman poet named Saffo sings so effectively against the practice of tossing felons and undesirables from a cliff on the Island of Leucadia in the hope that Apollo will catch them before they drown in the sea (the Leucadian Leap) that the god's high priest, Alcandro, is driven away in contempt. He vows to get revenge. The priest come upon Faone, a suitor of Saffo given...
less
