ABSTRACT
The production of Nausicaa was a turning point for Glanville-Hicks, not only professionally but also personally. In 1961 she settled permanently in Greece, purchasing two of the three properties she was to own over the course of the next 14 years. Glanville-Hicks had been planning her next operatic venture, Sappho, even before she had completed the scoring of Nausicaa. The setting for Sappho is the Greek island of lesbos in the period around 650 aD. The main character, sappho, is a bored, ageing beauty who is married to the elderly kreon. The treatment of tonality in Sappho is also reminiscent of Nausicaa. Tragic Celebration, like Sappho, offered little that was new in terms of Glanville-Hicks's musical language. In terms of the evolution of Glanville-Hicks's musical language, then, Sappho offered little that was new. She had essentially completed her operatic journey in Nausicaa.
