About the work
Saffo, ossia I riti d'Apollo Leucadio is Johann Simon Mayr's first opera, a dramma per musica in two acts to a libretto by Antonio Simeone Sografi. It premiered during Carnival on 17 February 1794 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with the castrato Girolamo Crescentini in one of the leading roles.
Plot
The poet Sappho, at the cliff of Leucas, suffers from her unrequited love for Phaon; unlike in the ancient tradition, in which she leaps from the cliff, the plot here reaches a happy ending.
Cultural significance
The success of this operatic debut brought the Bavarian-born Mayr, who had turned to opera on the advice of Niccolò Piccinni, numerous further commissions and launched his career as one of the most widely performed opera composers in Italy.