Description
Produced by AOD Actors of Dionysus the poems of Sappho (based on translations by David Stuttard and Josephine Balmer) are read by Fenella Fielding and Tamsin Shasha and set to music by Emma Hetherington, who performs them with Rebecca Vučetić.
Sappho’s is the first female voice in western literature. Today only some of her poetry survives, but it remains as startlingly fresh as it was when it was first written around 600 BC. With subjects ranging from love and desire to old age and sorrow, Sappho’s verses not only transport us to the flowering meadows of ancient Lesbos, but speak to us directly of emotions with which we are all familiar.
Fenella Fielding, OBE was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as “England’s first lady of the double entendre”. She was known for her seductive image and distinctively husky voice. She was a much loved friend and supporter of aod with whom she worked on many projects.
This CD contains fifteen of Sappho’s poems, many translated especially for the collection, and includes one which was discovered and published for the first time in 2014. In addition, nine of the poems (together with a haunting inscription from a fifth-century BC Athenian gravestone) have been set to music, accompanied on instruments ranging from piano and guitar, to harp and double bass.
Who could possibly resist this? Charismatic, sensuous, sublime: Imagine yourself under Sappho’s silver moon, the warm wind of her beloved Lesbos around you, the oak leaves shivering; our poet and her lovely girls your companions. A lyrical delight.
Bettany Hughes
