Saffo - Giovanni Pacini - 1967 

Grazie per questo bellissimo post. La più bella versione della Saffo di Pacini! Come celebrazione del centenario della morte del Maestro, essa rappresenta un bellissimo omaggio! Eccellente l'interpretazione della grande Leyla!

Thanks so TheBelcantist for posting this!!! Your taste is exquisite! And this is another WONDERFUL Leyla recording!!

Wonderful opera! Thanks!

thanks for this

merci

Place: Greece Time: Antiquity 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 to jealousy. At Alcandro's prompting, Faone denounces Saffo for preferring the poet Alceo to himself. Later, with Saffo and Apollo being in conflict, she cultivates a friendship with Climene, the daughter of Alcandro, in order to seek the priest's intercession with the god. Saffo agrees to sing at Climene's wedding, but when she finds that the husband-to-be is Faone, the poet completely loses self-control, tries to break up the wedding, vandalizes Apollo's altar and is driven away. Saffo turns up on the clifftop at Leucadia, convinced that her continuing love for Faone is a curse from Apollo. She intends to throw herself off the cliff in the hope that the god will catch her and remove the painful love. As required by custom, she identifies herself to Ippias, the curator of the Leap. He gives her the go-ahead to jump but an old man idling nearby has heard everything. He recognizes Saffo as Alcandro's long-lost daughter and therefore Climene's sister. Alcandro, Climene and Faone arrive. There is a happy reunion until Ippias points out that Saffo has made an agreement with Apollo from which she cannot back out. Saffo accepts her fate, bids farewell to everybody, and jumps. Climene faints. Faone has to be restrained from jumping, too. Apollo, still angry with her, allows Saffo to drown.

One of my great-great-grandfather's best-known operas! It should be staged more often in Italy and other countries.

Слушая Пачини, понимаешь, откуда растут ноги Верди, и многих других его собратьев по нотной грамоте.

la storia narrata nel libretto di Cammarano è totalmente insensata, per cavarne un dramma convincente ci sarebbe voluto un titano, comunque Pacini se la cava bene e l'opera è dignitosa, non capisco perchè sia stata abbandonata così (certo, si sente tanto un'atmosfera alla Spontini, ma quello era il momento, e quello il librettista); meriterebbe qualche ripresa, magari in teatri di provincia con un cast di giovani e un direttore che stacchi tempi un po' stretti

1:39:22 clarinetto solo atto III

I find this boring, trite, empty. I can see why Pacini has been mostly forgotten, sorry.