Massenet Sapho

[Alan Howe]

May I heartily recommend the fine French EMI recording from the seventies of Massenet's opera Sapho now reissued on the Malibran label? It's a snip for two CDs - see MDT's entry here:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=massenet+sapho&t=general
The set is brilliantly recorded, and has some lovely singing in the true French style, especially from soprano Renée Doria and tenor Ginès Sirera. And what an opera - one of Massenet's very best in my view, and almost entirely unknown. 

[edurban]

I share your enthusiasm for this opera, (based on Daudet's heartbreaking novel, which I also love.)  I haven't heard the EMI version, but this British version is very good:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=91674

David

[Alan Howe]

It'd be hard to better the French EMI performance now on Malibran - it's a proper studio recording, well sung and played. I bought the LPs years ago and have been waiting for it to re-appear for ages!

[giles.enders]

I do agree with Alan, this is an excellent recording of of an opera to wallow in.  Massent is very underrated as an opera composer.

Shame about the old bird on the cover though. 

[Alan Howe]

That's Renée Doria! What sacrilege! 

[JimL]

Bet she didn't look like that when she did the recording!

[Mark Thomas]

Massenet can do no wrong in my book and, although I already have the British set, I shall certainly be buying this new Malibran recording. I wonder if we'll ever see a recording of Le Mage, the opera which followed the magnificent Esclarmonde? Brilliant Classics recently released a recording of highlights from obscure French operas, called Patrie!, and it featured a magnificent duet from Le Mage. Hopefully a straw in the wind...

[Alan Howe]

Bet she didn't look like that when she did the recording!

Well, she was in her mid-fifties when the recording was made...

[Alan Howe]

This is an accurate and positive review:

<<A new CD transfer (I believe the first) of the 1978 Pathe recording (also isssued once by Peters International on LP) of Massenet's Sapho is really beautiful. The opera is lovely, and  Renee Doria and Gines Sirera are both wonderful.  Doria, a French lyric soprano, is in her element, singing with passion, total involvement, and purity of tone.  This is the only recording I've ever heard of the tenor Gines Sirera, but he sounds not unlike Alain Vanzo, which is meant as a great compliment. Roger Boutry conducts with urgency and the rest of the cast is fine. The transfer is superb -- a new label called Malibran Music (the number of this is CDRG 103-1)...Massenet's Sapho is a real discovery for anyone interested in French romantic opera.  (There is no libretto included, but good notes about the opera and a decent plot synopsis in English).

Henry Fogel>>
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.music.opera/l0c93qNrsCg