The Age of Tyrants: Sappho Via Gounod’s Opera

Synopsis

The heroine of Charles Gounod’s French opera Sapho (1851) sings her last aria O My Immortal Lyre on a Greek cliff before plunging to her death. Sappho, the most famous poet of the ‘Lyric Age’ of Greece, in the 7th to 6th centuries BC, addressed passionate love poems to women. This lecture uncovers what we know about the ‘real Sappho’, an aristocrat who lived between 630 and 570 BCE on the island of Lesbos and socialised in the lavish courts of upstart tyrants. This historical context in no way diminishes her songs’ astonishing immediacy and erotic power. [54 minutes]
Extra Lecture materials:
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Series

Ancient Greece in Film, Opera and the Arts

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of production

2017

Subjects

Film studies; Literature

Keywords

poetry; Sappho; ancient Greece

Online availability

URI

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/homers-iliad-via-the-movie-troy-2004

Price

Free

Delivery

Streamed/Download

Credits

Contributor

Edith Hall

Distributor

Name

Gresham College

Email

enquiries@gresham.ac.uk

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020 7831 0575

Fax

020 7831 5208

Address

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