Jules Massenet, in full Jules-Émile-Frédéric Massenet, (born May 12, 1842, Montaud, near Saint-Étienne, France—died August 13, 1912, Paris), leading French opera composer, whose music is admired for its lyricism, sensuality, occasional sentimentality, and theatrical aptness.

The son of an ironmaster, Massenet entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 11, subsequently studying composition under the noted opera composer Ambroise Thomas. In 1863 he won the Prix de Rome with his cantata David Rizzio. With the production in 1867 of his opera La Grand’ Tante (The Great Aunt), he embarked on a career as a composer of operas and incidental music. His 24 operas are characterized by a graceful, thoroughly French melodic style. Manon (1884; after Antoine-François, Abbé Prévost d’Exiles) is considered by many to be his masterpiece. The opera, marked by sensuous melody and skilled personification, uses leitmotifs to identify and characterize the protagonists and their emotions. In the recitatives (dialogue) it employs the unusual device of spoken words over a light orchestral accompaniment. Also among his finest and most successful operas are Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (1902), Werther (1892; after J.W. von Goethe), and Thaïs (1894). The famous “Méditation” for violin and orchestra from Thaïs remains part of the standard violin repertory.

Several of Massenet’s operas reflect the succession of contemporary operatic fashions. Thus, Le Cid (1885) has the characteristics of French grand opera; Le Roi de Lahore (1877; The King of Lahore) reflects the Orientalism—a fascination with Asian exotica—that was also prevalent in the 19th-century European and American art market; Esclarmonde (1889) shows the influence of Richard Wagner; and La Navarraise (1894; The Woman of Navarre) is influenced by the end-of-the-century style of verismo, or realism. Also prominent among Massenet’s operas are Hérodiade (1881) and Don Quichotte (1910).

Of Massenet’s incidental music, particularly notable is that for Leconte de Lisle’s play Les Érinnyes (1873; The Furies), which contains the widely performed song “Élégie.” In 1873 he also produced his oratorio, Marie-Magdeleine, later performed as an opera. This work exemplifies the mingling of religious feeling and eroticism often found in Massenet’s music. Massenet also composed more than 200 songs, a piano concerto, and several orchestral suites.

As a teacher of composition at the Paris Conservatoire from 1878, Massenet was highly influential. His autobiography was entitled Mes Souvenirs (1912; My Recollections).

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French pronunciation: ​[ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ];[n 1] 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music.

While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly became best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death forty-five years later he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Like many prominent French composers of the period, Massenet became a professor at the Conservatoire. He taught composition there from 1878 until 1896, when he resigned after the death of the director, Ambroise Thomas. Among his students were Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Pierné.

By the time of his death, Massenet was regarded by many critics as old-fashioned and unadventurous although his two best-known operas remained popular in France and abroad. After a few decades of neglect, his works began to be favourably reassessed during the mid-20th century, and many of them have since been staged and recorded. Although critics do not rank him among the handful of outstanding operatic geniuses such as Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, his operas are now widely accepted as well-crafted and intelligent products of the Belle Époque.

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Early years

1.2 Early works

1.3 Operatic successes and failures, 1879–96

1.4 Later years, 1896–1912

2 Music

2.1 Background

2.2 Operas

2.3 Other vocal music

2.4 Orchestral and chamber music

2.5 Recordings

3 Reputation

4 Notes, references and sources

4.1 Notes

4.2 References

4.3 Sources

5 Further reading

6 External links

Biography

Early years

exterior of large house in rural 19th century France

Massenet's birthplace in Montaud, photographed c. 1908

Massenet was born on 12 May 1842 at Montaud, then an outlying hamlet and now a part of the city of Saint-Étienne, in the Loire.[6] He was the youngest of the four children of Alexis Massenet (1788–1863) and his second wife Eléonore-Adelaïde née Royer de Marancour (1809–1875); the elder children were Julie, Léon and Edmond.[n 2] Massenet senior was a prosperous ironmonger; his wife was a talented amateur musician who gave Jules his first piano lessons. By early 1848 the family had moved to Paris, where they settled in a flat in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.[8] Massenet was educated at the Lycée Saint-Louis and, from either 1851 or 1853, the Paris Conservatoire. According to his colourful but unreliable memoirs,[9] Massenet auditioned in October 1851, when he was nine, before a judging panel comprising Daniel Auber, Fromental Halévy, Ambroise Thomas and Michele Carafa, and was admitted at once.[10] His biographer Demar Irvine dates the audition and admission as January 1853.[11] Both sources agree that Massenet continued his general education at the lycée in tandem with his musical studies.[12]

head and shoulder drawing of young man, clean shaven with a bouffant mane of hair

Massenet in the early 1860s

At the Conservatoire Massenet studied solfège with Augustin Savard and the piano with François Laurent.[13] He pursued his studies, with modest distinction, until the beginning of 1855, when family concerns disrupted his education. Alexis Massenet's health was poor, and on medical advice he moved from Paris to Chambéry in the south of France; the family, including Massenet, moved with him. Again, Massenet's own memoirs and the researches of his biographers are at variance: the composer recalled his exile in Chambéry as lasting for two years; Henry Finck and Irvine record that the young man returned to Paris and the Conservatoire in October 1855.[14] On his return he lodged with relations in Montmartre and resumed his studies; by 1859 he had progressed so far as to win the Conservatoire's top prize for pianists.[15] The family's finances were no longer comfortable, and to support himself Massenet took private piano students and played as a percussionist in theatre orchestras.[16] His work in the orchestra pit gave him a good working knowledge of the operas of Gounod and other composers, classic and contemporary.[17] Traditionally, many students at the Conservatoire went on to substantial careers as church organists; with that in mind Massenet enrolled for organ classes, but they were not a success and he quickly abandoned the instrument. He gained some work as a piano accompanist, in the course of which he met Wagner who, along with Berlioz, was one of his two musical heroes.[n 3]

In 1861 Massenet's music was published for the first time, the Grande Fantasie de Concert sur le Pardon de Ploërmel de Meyerbeer , a virtuoso piano work in nine sections.[19] Having graduated to the composition class under Ambroise Thomas, Massenet was entered for the Conservatoire's top musical honour, the Prix de Rome, previous winners of which included Berlioz, Thomas, Gounod and Bizet. The first two of these were on the judging panel for the 1863 competition.[n 4] All the competitors had to set the same text by Gustave Chouquet, a cantata about David Rizzio; after all the settings had been performed Massenet came face to face with the judges. He recalled:

Ambroise Thomas, my beloved master, came towards me and said, "Embrace Berlioz, you owe him a great deal for your prize." "The prize," I cried, bewildered, my face shining with joy. "I have the prize!!!" I was deeply moved and I embraced Berlioz, then my master, and finally Monsieur Auber. Monsieur Auber comforted me. Did I need comforting? Then he said to Berlioz pointing to me, "He'll go far, the young rascal, when he's had less experience!"[21][n 5]

The prize brought a well-subsidised three-year period of study, two-thirds of which was spent at the French Academy in Rome, based at the Villa Medici. At that time the academy was dominated by painters rather than musicians; Massenet enjoyed his time there, and made lifelong friendships with, among others, the sculptor Alexandre Falguière and the painter Carolus-Duran, but the musical benefit he derived was largely self-taught.[24] He absorbed the music at St Peter's, and closely studied the works of the great German masters, from Handel and Bach to contemporary composers.[24] During his time in Rome, Massenet met Franz Liszt, at whose request he gave piano lessons to Louise-Constance "Ninon" de Gressy, the daughter of one of Liszt's rich patrons. Massenet and Ninon fell in love, but marriage was out of the question while he was a student with modest means.[25]

Early works

interior of 19th century theatre

Auditorium of the Opéra-Comique

Massenet returned to Paris in 1866. He made a living by teaching the piano and publishing songs, piano pieces and orchestral suites, all in the popular style of the day.[17] Prix de Rome winners were sometimes invited by the Opéra-Comique in Paris to compose a work for performance there. At Thomas's instigation, Massenet was commissioned to write a one-act opéra comique, La grand'tante, presented in April 1867.[26] At around the same time he composed a Requiem, which has not survived.[27] In 1868 he met Georges Hartmann, who became his publisher and was his mentor for twenty-five years; Hartmann's journalistic contacts did much to promote his protégé's reputation.[17][n 6]

In October 1866 Massenet and Ninon were married; their only child, Juliette, was born in 1868. Massenet's musical career was briefly interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, during which he served as a volunteer in the National Guard alongside his friend Bizet.[17] He found the war so "utterly terrible" that he refused to write about it in his memoirs.[29] He and his family were trapped in the siege of Paris but managed to get out before the Paris Commune began; the family stayed for some months in Bayonne, in southwestern France.[30]

Poster for the première of Don César de Bazan by Célestin Nanteuil

After order was restored, Massenet returned to Paris where he completed his first large-scale stage work, an opéra comique in four acts, Don César de Bazan (Paris, 1872). It was a failure, but in 1873 he succeeded with his incidental music to Leconte de Lisle's tragedy Les Érinnyes and with the dramatic oratorio, Marie-Magdeleine, both of which were performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon.[27] His reputation as a composer was growing, but at this stage he earned most of his income from teaching, giving lessons for six hours a day.[31]

Scenery for exotic indoor Asian setting

Design by Philippe Chaperon for Le roi de Lahore, 1877

Massenet was a prolific composer; he put this down to his way of working, rising early and composing from four o'clock in the morning until midday, a practice he maintained all his life.[31] In general he worked fluently, seldom revising, although Le roi de Lahore, his nearest approach to a traditional grand opera, took him several years to complete to his own satisfaction.[17] It was finished in 1877 and was one of the first new works to be staged at the Palais Garnier, opened two years previously.[32] The opera, with a story taken from the Mahabharata, was a success and was quickly taken up by the opera houses of eight Italian cities. It was also performed at the Hungarian State Opera House, the Bavarian State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London.[33] After the first Covent Garden performance, The Times summed the piece up in a way that was frequently to be applied to the composer's operas: "M. Massenet's opera, although not a work of genius proper, is one of more than common merit, and contains all the elements of at least temporary success."[34]

This period was an early high point in Massenet's career. He had been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1876, and in 1878 he was appointed professor of counterpoint, fugue and composition at the Conservatoire under Thomas, who was now the director.[27][n 7] In the same year he was elected to the Institut de France, a prestigious honour, rare for a man in his thirties. Camille Saint-Saëns, whom Massenet beat in the election for the vacancy, was resentful at being passed over for a younger composer. When the result of the election was announced, Massenet sent Saint-Saëns a courteous telegram: "My dear colleague: the Institut has just committed a great injustice". Saint-Saëns cabled back, "I quite agree." He was elected three years later, but his relations with Massenet remained cool.[9][37]

Massenet was a popular and respected teacher at the Conservatoire. His pupils included Bruneau, Charpentier, Chausson, Hahn, Leroux, Pierné, Rabaud and Vidal.[27] He was known for the care he took in drawing out his pupils' ideas, never trying to impose his own.[9][n 8] One of his last students, Charles Koechlin, recalled Massenet as a voluble professor, dispensing "a teaching active, living, vibrant, and moreover comprehensive".[38] According to some writers, Massenet's influence extended beyond his own students. In the view of the critic Rodney Milnes, "In word-setting alone, all French musicians profited from the freedom he won from earlier restrictions."[9] Romain Rolland and Francis Poulenc have both considered Massenet an influence on Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande;[9] Debussy was a student at the Conservatoire during Massenet's professorship but did not study under him.[n 9]

Operatic successes and failures, 1879–96

Massenet's growing reputation did not prevent a contretemps with the Paris Opéra in 1879. Auguste Vaucorbeil, director of the Opéra, refused to stage the composer's new piece, Hérodiade, judging the libretto either improper or inadequate.[n 10] Édouard-Fortuné Calabresi, joint director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, immediately offered to present the work, and its première, lavishly staged, was given in December 1881. It ran for fifty-five performances in Brussels, and had its Italian premiere two months later at La Scala. The work finally reached Paris in February 1884, by which time Massenet had established himself as the leading French opera composer of his generation.[41]

Caricature of middle-aged male pianist and young female singer

"M. Massenet's bland pâtisserie and Mlle. Sanderson's sugar-candy notes" baked in "the National Musical Oven". Caricature from La Silhouette, March 1894.

Manon, first given at the Opéra-Comique in January 1884, was a prodigious success and was followed by productions at major opera houses in Europe and the United States. Together with Gounod's Faust and Bizet's Carmen it became, and has remained, one of the cornerstones of the French operatic repertoire.[42] After the intimate drama of Manon, Massenet once more turned to opera on the grand scale with Le Cid in 1885, which marked his return to the Opéra. The Paris correspondent of The New York Times wrote that with this new work Massenet "has resolutely declared himself a melodist of undoubted consistency and of remarkable inspiration."[43] After these two triumphs, Massenet entered a period of mixed fortunes. He worked on Werther intermittently for several years, but it was rejected by the Opéra-Comique as too gloomy.[44][n 11] In 1887 he met the American soprano Sibyl Sanderson. He developed passionate feelings for her, which remained platonic, although it was widely believed in Paris that she was his mistress, as caricatures in the journals hinted with varying degrees of subtlety.[46] For her, the composer revised Manon and wrote Esclarmonde (1889). The latter was a success, but it was followed by Le mage (1891), which failed. Massenet did not complete his next project, Amadis, and it was not until 1892 that he recovered his earlier successful form. Werther received its first performance in February 1892, when the Vienna Hofoper asked for a new piece, following the enthusiastic reception of the Austrian premiere of Manon.[9]

Poster for the first French production of Werther.

Though in the view of some writers Werther is the composer's masterpiece,[42][47] it was not immediately taken up with the same keenness as Manon. The first performance in Paris was in January 1893 by the Opéra-Comique company at the Théâtre Lyrique, and there were performances in the United States, Italy and Britain, but it met with a muted response. The New York Times said of it, "If M. Massenet's opera does not have lasting success it will be because it has no genuine depth. Perhaps M. Massenet is not capable of achieving profound depths of tragic passion; but certainly he will never do so in a work like Werther".[48] It was not until a revival by the Opéra-Comique in 1903 that the work became an established favourite.[44]

Thaïs (1894), composed for Sanderson, was moderately received.[49] Like Werther, it did not gain widespread popularity among French opera-goers until its first revival, which was four years after the premiere, by when the composer's association with Sanderson was over.[9] In the same year he had a modest success in Paris with the one-act Le portrait de Manon at the Opéra-Comique, and a much greater one in London with La Navarraise at Covent Garden.[50] The Times commented that in this piece Massenet had adopted the verismo style of such works as Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana to great effect. The audience clamoured for the composer to acknowledge the applause, but Massenet, always a shy man, declined to take even a single curtain call.[51]

Later years, 1896–1912

The death of Ambroise Thomas in February 1896 made vacant the post of director of the Conservatoire. The French government announced on 6 May that Massenet had been offered the position and had refused it.[52] The following day it was announced that another faculty member, Théodore Dubois, had been appointed director, and Massenet had resigned as professor of composition.[53] Two explanations have been advanced for this sequence of events. Massenet wrote in 1910 that he had remained in post as professor out of loyalty to Thomas, and was eager to abandon all academic work in favour of composing, a statement repeated by his biographers Hugh Macdonald and Demar Irvine.[17][54] Other writers on French music have written that Massenet was intensely ambitious to succeed Thomas, but resigned in pique after three months of manoeuvring, once the authorities finally rejected his insistence on being appointed director for life, as Thomas had been.[55] He was succeeded as professor by Gabriel Fauré, who was doubtful of Massenet's credentials, considering his popular style to be "based on a generally cynical view of art".[56]

Slender woman dressed as a young man in 18th century costume

Mary Garden in the title role of Chérubin, 1905

With Grisélidis and Cendrillon complete, though still awaiting performance, Massenet began work on Sapho, based on a novel by Daudet about the love of an innocent young man from the country for a worldly-wise Parisienne.[57] It was given at the Opéra-Comique in November 1897, with great success, though it has been neglected since the composer's death.[58] His next work staged there was Cendrillon, his version of the Cinderella story, which was well received in May 1899.[59]

Macdonald comments that at the start of the 20th century Massenet was in the enviable position of having his works included in every season of the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, and in opera houses around the world.[17] From 1900 to his death he led a life of steady work and, generally, success. According to his memoirs, he declined a second offer of the directorship of the Conservatoire in 1905.[60][n 12] Apart from composition, his main concern was his home life in the rue de Vaugirard, Paris, and at his country house in Égreville. He was uninterested in Parisian society, and so shunned the limelight that in later life he preferred not to attend his own first nights.[63] He described himself as "a fireside man, a bourgeois artist".[64] The main biographical detail of note of his latter years was his second amitié amoureuse with one of his leading ladies, Lucy Arbell, who created roles in his last operas.[n 13] Milnes describes Arbell as "gold-digging": her blatant exploitation of the composer's honourable affections caused his wife considerable distress and even strained Massenet's devotion (or infatuation as Milnes characterises it).[9] After the composer's death Arbell pursued his widow and publishers through the law courts, seeking to secure herself a monopoly of the leading roles in several of his late operas.[9]

A rare excursion from the opera house came in 1903 with Massenet's only piano concerto, on which he had begun work while still a student. The work was performed by Louis Diémer at the Conservatoire, but made little impression compared with his operas.[66] In 1905 Massenet composed Chérubin, a light comedy about the later career of the sex-mad pageboy Cherubino from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.[67] Then came two serious operas, Ariane, on the Greek legend of Theseus and Ariadne, and Thérèse, a terse drama set in the French Revolution.[68] His last major success was Don Quichotte (1910), which L'Etoile called "a very Parisian evening and, naturally, a very Parisian triumph".[n 14] Even with his creative powers seemingly in decline he wrote four other operas in his later years – Bacchus, Roma, Panurge and Cléopâtre. The last two, like Amadis, which he had been unable to finish in the 1890s, were premiered after the composer's death and then lapsed into oblivion.[17]

In August 1912 Massenet went to Paris from his house at Égreville to see his doctor. The composer had been suffering from abdominal cancer for some months, but his symptoms did not seem imminently life-threatening. Within a few days his condition deteriorated sharply. His wife and family hastened to Paris, and were with him when he died, aged seventy. By his own wish his funeral, with no music, was held privately at Égreville, where he is buried in the churchyard.[70][71]

Music

See also: List of compositions by Jules Massenet

Background

"On l'appelle Manon"

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From Manon, performed by Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar in 1912

"Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux"

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From Le Cid, performed by Marguerita Sylva in 1910

"Vision fugitive"

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From Hérodiade, performed by Charles W. Clark in 1914

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In the view of his biographer Hugh Macdonald, Massenet's main influences were Gounod and Thomas, with Meyerbeer and Berlioz also important to his style.[17] From beyond France he absorbed some traits from Verdi, and possibly Mascagni, and above all Wagner. Unlike some other French composers of the period, Massenet never fell fully under Wagner's spell, but he took from the earlier composer a richness of orchestration and a fluency in treatment of musical themes.[9]

Although when he chose, Massenet could write noisy and dissonant scenes – in 1885 Bernard Shaw called him "one of the loudest of modern composers"[72] – much of his music is soft and delicate. Hostile critics have seized on this characteristic,[27] but the article on Massenet in the 2001 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians observes that in the best of his operas this sensual side "is balanced by strong dramatic tension (as in Werther), theatrical action (as in Thérèse), scenic diversion (as in Esclarmonde), or humour (as in Le portrait de Manon)."[17]

Massenet's Parisian audiences were greatly attracted by the exotic in music, and Massenet willingly obliged, with musical evocations of far-flung places or times long past. Macdonald lists a great number of locales depicted in the operas, from ancient Egypt, mythical Greece and biblical Galilee to Renaissance Spain, India and Revolutionary Paris. Massenet's practical experience in orchestra pits as a young man and his careful training at the Conservatoire equipped him to make such effects without much recourse to unusual instruments. He understood the capabilities of his singers, and composed with close, detailed regard for their voices.[9][17]

Operas

See also: List of operas by Jules Massenet

theatre poster listing names of author, composer and star

Poster by Jean de Paleologu for Sapho, 1897

theatre poster depicting Cervantes's Don Quixote

Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for Don Quichotte, 1910

Massenet wrote more than thirty operas. Authorities differ on the exact total because some of the works, particularly from his early years, are lost and others were left incomplete. Still others, such as Don César de Bazan and Le roi de Lahore, were substantially recomposed after their first productions and exist in two or more versions. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians lists forty Massenet operas in all, of which nine are shown as lost or destroyed.[17] The "OperaGlass" website of Stanford University shows revised versions as premieres, and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, does not: their totals are forty-four and thirty-six respectively.[9][73]

Having honed his personal style as a young man, and sticking broadly with it for the rest of his career, Massenet does not, as some other composers do, lend himself to classification into clearly defined early, middle and late periods. Moreover, his versatility means that there is no plot or locale that can be regarded as typical Massenet. Another respect in which he differed from many opera composers is that he did not work regularly with the same librettists: Grove lists more than thirty writers who provided him with librettos.[17]

The 1954 (fifth) edition of Grove said of Massenet, "to have heard Manon is to have heard the whole of him".[74] In 1994 Andrew Porter called this view preposterous. He countered, "Who knows Manon, Werther and Don Quichotte knows the best of Massenet, but not his range from heroic romance to steamy verismo."[75] Massenet's output covered most of the different subgenres of opera, from opérette (L'adorable Bel'-Boul and L'écureuil du déshonneur – both early pieces, the latter lost) and opéra-comique such as Manon, to grand opera – Grove categorises Le roi de Lahore as "the last grand opera to have a great and widespread success". Many of the elements of traditional grand opera are written into later large-scale works such as Le mage and Hérodiade.[17] Massenet's operas consist of anything from one to five acts, and although many of them are described on the title pages of their scores as "opéra" or "opéra comique", others have carefully nuanced descriptions such as "comédie chantée", "comédie lyrique", "comédie-héroïque", "conte de fées", "drame passionnel", "haulte farce musicale", "opéra légendaire", "opéra romanesque" and "opéra tragique".[76]

Méditation from Thaïs

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Performed by Bomsori Kim and Pallavi Mahidhara

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In some of his operas, such as Esclarmonde and Le mage, Massenet moved away from the traditional French pattern of free-standing arias and duets. Solos meld from declamatory passages into more melodic form, in a way that many contemporary critics thought Wagnerian. Shaw was not among them: in 1885 he wrote of Manon:

Of Wagnerism there is not the faintest suggestion. A phrase which occurs in the first love duet breaks out once or twice in subsequent amorous episodes, and has been seized on by a few unwary critics as a Wagnerian leit motif. But if Wagner had never existed, Manon would have been composed much as it stands now, whereas if Meyerbeer and Gounod had not made a path for M. Massenet, it is impossible to say whither he might have wandered, or how far he could have pushed his way.[77]

The 21st-century critic Anne Feeney comments, "Massenet rarely repeated musical phrases, let alone used recurrent themes, so the resemblance [to Wagner] lies solely in the declamatory lyricism and enthusiastic use of the brass and percussion."[78] Massenet enjoyed introducing comedy into his serious works, and writing some mainly comic operas. In Macdonald's view of the comic works, Cendrillon and Don Quichotte succeed, but Don César de Bazan and Panurge are less satisfying than "the more delicately tuned operas such as Manon, Le portrait de Manon and Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, where comedy serves a more complex purpose."[17]

According to Operabase, analysis of productions around the world in 2012–13 shows Massenet as the twentieth most popular of all opera composers, and the fourth most popular French one, after Bizet, Offenbach and Gounod.[79] The most often performed of his operas in the period are shown as Werther (63 productions in all countries), followed by Manon (47), Don Quichotte (22), Thaïs (21), Cendrillon (17), La Navarraise (4), Cléopâtre (3), Thérèse (2), Le Cid (2), Hérodiade (2), Esclarmonde (2), Chérubin (2) and Le mage (1).[80]

Other vocal music

"Notre Père"

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Performed by l'Atelier Vocal des Herbiers

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Between 1862 and 1900 Massenet composed eight oratorios and cantatas, mostly on religious subjects.[81] There is a degree of overlap between his operatic style and his choral works for church or concert hall performance.[82] Vincent d'Indy wrote that there was "a discreet and semi-religious eroticism" in Massenet's music.[n 15] The religious element was a regular theme in his secular as well as sacred works: this derived not from any strong personal faith, but from his response to the dramatic aspects of Roman Catholic ritual.[42] The mingling of operatic and religious elements in his works was such that one of his oratorios, Marie-Magdeleine, was staged as an opera during the composer's lifetime.[73] Elements of the erotic and some implicit sympathy for sinners were controversial, and may have prevented his church works establishing themselves more securely.[17] Arthur Hervey, a contemporary critic not unsympathetic to Massenet, commented that Marie-Magdeleine and the later oratorio Ève (1875) were "the Bible doctored up in a manner suitable to the taste of impressionable Parisian ladies – utterly inadequate for the theme, at the same time very charming and effective."[84] Of the four works categorised by Irvine and Grove as oratorios, only one, La terre promise (1900), was written for church performance. Massenet used the term "oratorio" for that work, but he called Marie-Magdeleine a "drame sacré", Ève a "mystère", and La Vierge (1880) a "légende sacrée".[85]

Massenet composed many other smaller-scale choral works, and more than two hundred songs. His early collections of songs were particularly popular and helped establish his reputation. His choice of lyrics ranged widely. Most were verses by poets such as Musset, Maupassant, Hugo, Gautier and many lesser-known French writers, with occasional poems from overseas, including Tennyson in English and Shelley in French translation.[86] Grove comments that Massenet's songs, though pleasing and impeccable in craftsmanship, are less inventive than those of Bizet and less distinctive than those of Duparc and Fauré.[17]

Orchestral and chamber music

Massenet was a fluent and skilful orchestrator, and willingly provided ballet episodes for his operas, incidental music for plays, and a one-act stand-alone ballet for Vienna (Le carillon, 1892). Macdonald remarks that Massenet's orchestral style resembled that of Delibes, "with its graceful movement and bewitching colour", which was highly suited to classical French ballet.[17] The Méditation for solo violin and orchestra, from Thaïs, is possibly the best known non-vocal piece by Massenet, and appears on many recordings.[87] Another popular stand-alone orchestral piece from the operas is Le dernier sommeil de la Vierge from La Vierge, which has featured on numerous discs since the middle of the 20th century.[88]

A Parisian critic, after seeing La grand' tante, declared that Massenet was a symphonist rather than a theatre composer.[17] At the time of the British premiere of Manon in 1885, the critic in The Manchester Guardian, reviewing the work enthusiastically, nevertheless echoed his French confrère's view that the composer was really a symphonist, whose music was at its best when purely orchestral.[89] Massenet took a wholly opposite view of his talents. He was temperamentally unsuited to writing symphonically: the constraints of sonata form bored him. He wrote, in the early 1870s, "What I have to say, musically, I have to say rapidly, forcefully, concisely; my discourse is tight and nervous, and if I wanted to express myself otherwise I would not be myself."[90] His efforts in the concertante field made little mark, but his orchestral suites, colourful and picturesque according to Grove, have survived on the fringes of the repertoire.[17] Other works for orchestra are a symphonic poem, Visions (1891), an Ouverture de Concert (1863) and Ouverture de Phèdre (1873). After early attempts at chamber music as a student, he wrote little more in the genre. Most of his early chamber pieces are now lost; three pieces for cello and piano survive.[91]

Recordings

portraits of two men and two women

Among Massenet's interpreters, clockwise from top left: Pierre Monteux, Renée Fleming, Roberto Alagna and Victoria de los Ángeles

The only known recording made by Massenet is an excerpt from Sapho, "Pendant un an je fus ta femme", in which he plays a piano accompaniment for the soprano Georgette Leblanc. It was recorded in 1903, and was not intended for publication. It has been released on compact disc (2008), together with contemporary recordings by Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and others.[92]

In Massenet's later years, and in the decade after his death, many of his songs and opera extracts were recorded. Some of the performers were the original creators of the roles, such as Ernest van Dyck (Werther),[93] Emma Calvé (Sapho),[94] Hector Dufranne (Grisélidis),[95] and Vanni Marcoux (Panurge).[96] Complete French recordings of Manon and Werther, conducted by Élie Cohen, were issued in 1932 and 1933 and have been republished on CD.[97] The critic Alan Blyth comments that they embody the original, intimate Opéra-Comique style of performing Massenet.[97]

Of Massenet's operas, the two best known, Manon and Werther, have been recorded many times, and studio or live recordings have been issued of many of the others, including Cendrillon, Le Cid, Don Quichotte, Esclarmonde, Hérodiade, Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, Le mage, La Navarraise and Thaïs. Conductors on these discs include Sir Thomas Beecham, Richard Bonynge, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Patrick Fournillier, Sir Charles Mackerras, Pierre Monteux, Sir Antonio Pappano and Michel Plasson. Among the sopranos and mezzos are Dame Janet Baker, Victoria de los Ángeles, Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu and Dame Joan Sutherland. Leading men in recordings of Massenet operas include Roberto Alagna, Gabriel Bacquier, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Jonas Kaufmann, José van Dam, Alain Vanzo and Rolando Villazón.[98]

In addition to the operas, recordings have been issued of several orchestral works, including the ballet Le carillon, the piano concerto in E♭, the Fantaisie for cello and orchestra, and orchestral suites.[98] Many individual mélodies by Massenet were included in mixed recitals on record during the 20th century, and more have been committed to disc since then, including, for the first time, a CD in 2012, exclusively devoted to his songs for soprano and piano.[99]

Reputation

image of the same man shown in the image at the top of the page, clearly several decades later

Massenet in his later years

By the time of the composer's death in 1912 his reputation had declined, especially outside his native country. In the second edition (1907) of Grove, J A Fuller Maitland accused the composer of pandering to the fashionable Parisian taste of the moment, and disguising a uniformly "weak and sugary" style with superficial effects. Fuller Maitland contended that to discerning music lovers such as himself the operas of Massenet were "inexpressibly monotonous", and he predicted that they would all be forgotten after the composer's death.[100][n 16] Similar views were expressed in an obituary in The Musical Times:

His early scores are, for the greater part, his best ... Later, and for the plain reason that he never attempted to renovate his style, he sank into sheer mannerism. Indeed, one can but marvel that so gifted a musician, who lacked neither individuality nor skill, should have so utterly succeeded in throwing away his gifts. Success spoiled him ... the actual progress of musical art during the past forty years left Massenet unmoved ... he has taken no part in the evolution of modern music.[27]

Massenet was never entirely without supporters. In the 1930s Sir Thomas Beecham told the critic Neville Cardus, "I would give the whole of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos for Massenet's Manon, and would think I had vastly profited by the exchange."[102] By the 1950s critics were reappraising Massenet's works. In 1951 Martin Cooper of The Daily Telegraph wrote that Massenet's detractors, including some fellow composers, were on the whole idealistic, even puritanical, "but few of them have in practice achieved anything so near perfection in any genre, however humble, as Massenet achieved in his best works."[103] In 1955 Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor commented in The Record Guide that, although usually dismissed as an inferior Gounod, Massenet wrote music with a distinct flavour of its own. "He had a gift for melody of a suave, voluptuous and eminently singable kind, and the intelligence and dramatic sense to make the most of it." The writers called for revivals of Grisélidis, Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, Don Quichotte and Cendrillon, all then neglected.[45] By the 1990s, Massenet's reputation had been considerably rehabilitated. In The Penguin Opera Guide (1993), Hugh Macdonald wrote that though Massenet's operas never equalled the grandeur of Berlioz's Les Troyens, the genius of Bizet's Carmen or the profundity of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, from the 1860s until the years before the First World War, the composer gave the French lyric stage a remarkable series of works, two of which – Manon and Werther – are "masterpieces that will always grace the repertoire". In Macdonald's view, Massenet "embodies many enduring aspects of the belle époque, one of the richest cultural periods in history".[42] In France, Massenet's 20th-century eclipse was less complete than elsewhere, but his oeuvre has been revalued in recent years. In 2003 Piotr Kaminsky wrote in Mille et un opéras of Massenet's skill in translating French text into flexible melodic phrases, his exceptional orchestral virtuosity, combining sparkle and clarity, and his unerring theatrical instinct.[104] Begun by Jean-Louis Pichon in November 1990, the Massenet Festival in Massenet's native Saint-Étienne have produced biennial performances to promote and celebrate his music.[17][105]

Rodney Milnes, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), agrees that Manon and Werther have a secure place in the international repertoire; he counts three others as "re-establishing a toehold" (Cendrillon, Thaïs and Don Quichotte), with many more due for re-evaluation or rediscovery. He concludes that comparing Massenet with the handful of composers of great genius, "It would be absurd to claim that he was anything more than a second-rate composer; he nevertheless deserves to be seen, like Richard Strauss, at least as a first-class second-rate one."[9]

Born in 1842 (at La Terrasse, near Saint-Étienne) from his father's second marriage, Jules Massenet is the last of twelve children. He will benefit from a genetic heritage from Eastern Europe: an Alsatian father with Austrian ancestry, a mother with Prussian blood, both very rigorous and demanding. His family moved to Paris in 1848, when he was six years old and his mother gave him his first piano lessons.

His father, Alexis Massenet, master of forges, introduced in France a technique to refine the sharpening of scythes. His mother, Adélaïde, an excellent pianist and talented painter, was her son's only piano teacher until he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1853. It was also her who gave him as a rule of life this relentlessness to work which it will bend its entire existence. Until his death, Jules Massenet got up before dawn to devote himself to composition.

The material life of the family is uncertain. His mother gives piano lessons. For four years, he worked as a timpanist at the Lyric Theater. There he familiarized himself with the repertoire.

After a 1st Prize in piano in 1859, he won the 1st Grand Prix de Rome in 1863 and spent two years at the Villa Medici. During this stay, through Franz Liszt, he met the one who would become his wife, Louise-Constance de Gressy, whom he married in 1866; from this union, will be born an only daughter, Juliette, born in 1868.

Adelaide Massenet

Adelaide Massenet

Juliette Massenet

Juliette Massenet

Werther

Werther

Griselidis

Griselidis

Marie-Magdeleine

Marie-Magdeleine

dash 1

His professional background

Back in Paris in 1866, he provided for himself by giving piano lessons and thought to publish piano pieces.

The meeting with Georges Hartmann who will be his editor and his mentor, as well as a commission from the Opéra Comique, are decisive for his career. In 1867, he created his first lyric work, La Grand 'Tante.

He quickly gained notoriety, and was one of the young noted composers of Paris. His compositions are published. He enlisted in the National Guard during the Paris Commune.

After the war of 1870 and two comic operas, success awaits him with his first oratorio, Marie-Magdeleine (1873). Then another oratorio, Eve (1875); his first major opera, The King of Lahore, given in Paris in 1877 brought him consecration.

He participated in the founding of the National Music Society. In 1876, he received the Legion of Honor at the age of 36 (he was commander in 1899).

Massenet was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and was appointed professor of composition in 1878, replacing Ambroise Thomas who became its director. Jules Massenet will have as pupils, eighteen Grands Prix de Rome, without forgetting the young composers to whom he lavished his advice, - M. Ravel and G. Enesco were among the number. In their memories, they will describe him as a man of great culture. “He talked about everything, literature, history and painting. Everything was good for him to illustrate what he wanted us to understand and his eloquence equaled his sensitivity. I will never forget the hours spent with him at the Louvre Museum… ”(Reynaldo Hahn). His teaching was done with tact, taking great care to give the student self-confidence.

He moved to a castle in Égreville in 1899, south of Fontainebleau. There he completed his work of sacred music, La Terre Promise .

He died of cancer at the age of seventy in 1912. He was buried in Égreville.

Thai

Thai

Sapho

Sapho

Don Quixote

Don Quixote

Georges bizet

Georges bizet

Tchaikovsky

Piotr Tchaikovsky

Puccini

Giacomo Puccini

Saint Saens

Camille Saint-Saëns

dash 1

His professional and friendly relations

He maintains the best terms with his publishers and in the musical world, Georges Bizet, dedicatee of the Hungarian Scenes, (for his funeral, Massenet will compose a Lamento ), Camille Saint-Saëns; foreign composers, J. Brahms G. Puccini, E. Humperdinck, PI Tchaïkoswky and others ... He will remain faithful to his elders, Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod in particular, and his masters: filial trust in his master, Ambroise Thomas , until the latter's death.

He will maintain a permanent friendship with many artists:

With the painters, William Bouguereau, Félicien Rops, Puvis de Chavanne, the portrait painter Georges Clairin, unparalleled humorist who will become the teacher of the composer's daughter, Juliette; Lévy-Dhurmer, the engraver Jules-Clément Chaplain whom he knew in Rome, author of the famous drawing representing Massenet in the Roman countryside. Their friendship will last until the death of Chaplain in 1909.

There are also sculptors: Alexandre Falguière, Henri Chapu, Fix-Masseau, Ringel d'Illsach, architects: Viollet-Le-Duc and especially Charles Garnier to whom we owe the operas in Paris and Monte-Carlo.

Among his friends, we also find writers, Anatole France, the author of Thaïs , Victor Hugo, some of whose poems are found among his melodies (Massenet was long tempted to write an opera based on Notre-Dame de Paris); Juliette Massenet will befriend the grandchildren of Hugo, Georges and Jeanne.

Above all, let's not forget the closest of them, Alphonse Daudet, the author of Lettres de mon moulin , where Massenet meets the very young Marie Delna (18 years old), creator of the role of Charlotte de Werther for the cover in Paris in 1893.

The largely autobiographical novel by Daudet, Sapho, (written in 1884 the year of Manon's creation ), first brought to the stage, will be adapted from a libretto by H. Cain for the Opéra-Comique and premiered in 1897, a “naturalist” work unfairly absent from our lyrical scenes.

Let us also remember many poets, who will inspire his melodies… dramatic authors: Jean Richepin, Victorien Sardou… his librettists: Henri Meilhac, Louis Gallet, Henri Cain…

Hugo

Victor Hugo

Garnier

Charles Garnier

Daudet

Alphonse Daudet

Chaplain

Jules Chaplain

dash 1

Jules Massenet

J. Massenet (14 years old)

Jules Massenet

J. Massenet (39 years old)

Jules Massenet

J. Massenet (70 years)

Massenet is anxious, quick to discouragement, nostalgic, we would say today: "depressed".

The light, even humorous spirit of certain booklets sometimes comes to inspire him but they are few in number: at the beginning of his career, La Grand-Tante (1867); The Portrait of Manon (1894); Cinderella (1899); Grisélidis (1901) includes puff roles (The Devil and his wife Fiamina); Chérubin (created in Monte-Carlo in 1905) and, at the end of his life, the posthumous work freely inspired by Rabelais, Panurge .

For the rest, it is the omnipresence of a dramatic theme (the rupture in Sapho , the madness in La Navarraise) or tragic with a fatal outcome (from Herodias to Cleopatra ). Only Esclarmonde escapes the rule.

He does little about his works in his family correspondence - the one he maintains with his publishers or his librettists tells us more - but it marks out dates and trips.

For example, his trip to Holland "in the footsteps of Abbé Prévost" while he was composing Manon ; the rehearsals of Werther in Vienna; the weather is also often worn in the margins of his manuscripts as well as his mood: "Alone ... sad ...".

Impulsive, angry at times, he hardly fights a duel with the famous baritone Lassalle who had been imprudent (during rehearsals) to criticize the female interpreter of the Mage .

He is credited with an eventful love life ... but it must be said that in this regard, the evidence is lacking. And then, over the years, his attachment to his wife is often manifested: barely a year before his death, on October 3, 1911, he wrote to her: “Did you know that on October 8, it will be 45 years since we are united and… 46 that I love you? ”

The music composed by Massenet is one of those that we listen to without restraint - which means that this hard worker has put all his energy into making us believe in an ease, all in appearance.

It is precisely this sensitivity, so present in his music, that made him famous.

And he will forever be remembered by one of the most eclectic of our composers, a great teacher and a great lover of Art.

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

Notice biographique et chronologique

1842

- 12 mai: Naissance à Montaud, faubourg de Saint-Etienne, de Jules Massenet, fils d’Alexis

Massenet (1788-1863), maître de forges, et d’Adélaïde Royer de Marancour (1809-1875), sa

seconde épouse.

1847

- Alexis Massenet, cède ses parts des fabriques de Pont-Salomon (en Haute-Loire) et de

Montaud, près de Saint-Etienne.

Arrivée à Paris d’Adélaïde Massenet et de ses enfants (Alexis rejoindra sa famille en 1851).

1848

- 24 février: le petit Jules commence, avec sa mère, excellente pianiste, à étudier le piano.

Adélaïde Massenet assurera l’éducation musicale de son fils jusqu’à ce qu’il entre au

Conservatoire de Paris.

1851

- 9 octobre: examen d’admission au Conservatoire, sans succès.

1853

- 10 janvier: Massenet entre à 11 ans dans la classe de piano d’Adolphe Laurent.

1854

- Les Massenet quittent Paris pour Chambéry.

- Octobre : Massenet tente une fugue vers Paris mais reconnu à Lyon par un ami de son

père, est reconduit à Chambéry.

1855

- Octobre: accueilli à Paris par sa sœur Julie (mariée au peintre Paul Cavaillé), Massenet

réintègre le Conservatoire.

1859

- Premier Prix de piano.

- 19 mars: Massenet participe comme timbalier à la création de Faust.

- Octobre: inscrit dans la classe de composition de Bazin qui le renvoie. Massenet reprend

bientôt des cours particuliers avec son ancien professeur de solfège, Savard.

1860

- Admis dans la classe d’harmonie de Reber, Premier Accessit en juillet.

1861

- Première publication chez Brandus et Dufour: une paraphrase pour piano, Grande

Fantaisie de concert sur Le Pardon de Ploërmel de G. Meyerbeer.

- Novembre: entrée dans la classe de composition d’Ambroise Thomas.

1862

- Mai: concourt pour le Prix de Rome avec la cantate Louise de Mézières: mention

honorable. 2

nd Prix de contrepoint et fugue.

1863

- A nouveau, concours de Rome, avec la cantate David Rizzio. 1

er Grand Prix.

- Novembre: Première oeuvre symphonique: l’Ouverture en sol.

- Fin décembre : départ pour l’Italie.

1864-65

- Pensionnaire de l’Académie de France à Rome, à la Villa Médicis. Rencontre Liszt, près

d’entrer dans les ordres qui le recommande (fin 1864) à une jeune française désireuse de

prendre des leçons de piano, Louise-Constance de Gressy (qu’on appelle Ninon). Coup de

foudre.

- Octobre 1865: voyage à Venise.

- 17 décembre 1865, quitte la Villa Médicis, rentre à Paris.

• 1866

2

- 24 février: première audition de la suite symphonique, Pompéia, écrite en Italie.

- Printemps. Composition de la Grand-tante ; fasciné par Schumann, Massenet écrit son

premier cycle de mélodies, le Poème d’Avril, op. 14, sur des poésies d’Armand Silvestre.

- juillet: première audition de deux poèmes symphoniques écrits à Paris au printemps, le

Retour d’une Caravane et Une Noce Flamande.

- 8 octobre: épouse Ninon à Avon, près de Fontainebleau. Le jeune couple habite à Paris, 51

rue Laffitte et dispose pour l’été d’une maison à Avon chez Mme de Sainte-Marie, mère de

Ninon.

1867

- 24 mars: première audition de la Première Suite d’Orchestre.

- 3 avril : création de la Grand-tante à l’Opéra-Comique.

- En août: lancement du concours officiel de composition: la Coupe du Roi de Thulé.

Massenet classé 2

nd

.

- 15 août : Première audition à l’Opéra-Comique d’une cantate de Massenet, Paix et Liberté.

1868

- 31 mars, naissance de Juliette, fille unique du compositeur.

- Fondation des éditions Hartmann qui obtiennent rapidement l’exclusivité des oeuvres de

Massenet. Premières publications : deux cycles de mélodies, Poème d’Avril et Poème du

Souvenir .

- En juillet, Massenet termine le Florentin, opéra-comique destiné au concours lancé l’année

précédente: classé 3è.

1869

- Plusieurs projets d’opéras. Leçons de piano, principal moyen de subsistance de Massenet

jusqu’à sa nomination comme Professeur de Composition au Conservatoire.

- Déménagement des Massenet au 38 rue Malesherbes (devenue depuis 46, rue du général

Foy).

1870

- Mai à juillet: séjour à Avon. Achèvement de Méduse 1

, opéra en trois actes.

- De septembre 1870 à janvier 1871 : dans Paris assiégé par les Prussiens, Massenet est

incorporé dans la Garde Nationale. Ecrit une Symphonie et une Deuxième Suite

d’Orchestre.

1871

- 24 janvier : Massenet retrouve sa famille dont il était sans nouvelles depuis le 10

septembre.

- Juin: de retour à Avon, compose les Scènes Pittoresques. Aux côtés de Saint-Saëns,

participe à la fondation de la Société Nationale de Musique.

- à partir de novembre: composition de Marie-Magdeleine.

- 26 novembre: première audition de sa Deuxième Suite, Scènes Hongroises, aux Concerts

Populaires.

1872

- Janvier: Fin de la composition de Marie-Magdeleine. Refus de Pasdeloup après audition.

- 30 novembre: Don César de Bazan retiré de l’affiche de l’Opéra-Comique après 13

représentations.

- Décembre : composition d’une musique de scène pour Les Erinnyes de Leconte de Lisle.

- Début de la composition d’un grand opéra, Le Roi de Lahore.

1873

- 6 janvier: création des Erinnyes à l’Odéon. Grand succès de la musique de Massenet.

- Création du Concert National à l’Odéon par Hartmann sous la direction d’Edouard

Colonne.

- 11 avril: première audition, triomphale, de Marie-Magdeleine avec Pauline Viardot dans le

rôle-titre.

- Composition de l’Ouverture de Phèdre.

1874

- Composition de l’oratorio Eve.

- 22 février: première audition de l’Ouverture de Phèdre.

- 22 mars: première audition des Scènes Pittoresques.

1 Considéré comme perdu, peut-être réutilisé dans d’autres ouvrages.

3

- Juillet et août: composition des Scènes Dramatiques.

1875

- 10 janvier: première audition des Scènes Dramatiques.

- 18 avril: première audition d’Eve .

- 3 juin: mort de Bizet, ami de Massenet.

1876

- 15 mai: reprise des Erinnyes, réorchestrées.

- 26 juillet: Massenet est élevé au grade de chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

- Octobre: orchestration du Roi de Lahore, mis en répétition à l’Opéra de Paris.

1877

- 27 avril: Le Roi de Lahore à l’Opéra de Paris.

- Eté: composition de La Vierge, remaniement du Roi de Lahore.

- L’éditeur milanais, Ricordi, envisage de monter Le Roi de Lahore en Italien. Il propose à

Massenet le livret d’Hérodiade.

1878

- Première audition des Scènes Napolitaines.

- Il Re di Lahore au Teatro Regio de Turin avec un tableau supplémentaire.

- 22 août: l’oratorio la Vierge est terminé à Fontainebleau et immédiatement gravé.

- 1er octobre: Massenet est nommé Professeur de Composition au Conservatoire de Paris.

- 30 novembre: élection de Massenet à l’Institut, à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts.

- Composition d’Hérodiade sur un livret traduit de l’italien.

1879

- 25 janvier: 1er voyage en Hongrie à l’occasion de la création du Roi de Lahore à Budapest.

L’œuvre poursuit une carrière internationale : de Milan à Prague jusqu’à Rio de Janeiro.

1880

- Janvier à septembre, orchestration d’Hérodiade.

- Le Roi de Lahore quitte définitivement le répertoire de l’Opéra de Paris.

- 22 mai: 1

ère audition de la Vierge aux Concerts Historiques de l’Opéra de Paris sous la

direction de Massenet.

- Naissance du projet d’écrire Werther.

1881

- Mars: première audition des Scènes de Féerie à Londres.

- Avril: Le Roi de Lahore à Barcelone. Premier voyage de Massenet en Espagne.

- Eté: composition des Scènes Alsaciennes.

- 19 décembre: création d’Hérodiade à Bruxelles.

1882

- Remaniement d’Hérodiade.

- Février à octobre : composition de Manon .

- Fin février : voyage de Massenet à Milan. Hérodiade à La Scala.

- 19 mars : 1ère audition des Scènes Alsaciennes.

- Gabriel Pierné et Georges Marty, deux élèves de Massenet, Prix de Rome. ex-æquo.

- Août: voyage en Hollande, sur les pas de l’abbé Prévost.

- 19 octobre. Fin de la composition de Manon.

1883

- 20 janvier: Massenet dirige les représentations d’Hérodiade à Hambourg.

- De février à fin août, orchestration de Manon.

- 20 mars : création française d’Hérodiade à Nantes, en présence du compositeur.

- Prix de Rome : Paul Vidal, élève de Massenet.

1884

- 19 janvier: création de Manon à l’Opéra-Comique.

- 1er février: création parisienne d’Hérodiade au Théâtre Italien.

- août: Composition du Cid. Remaniements de Manon2

.

2 Massenet ajoute la Gavotte au IIIème Acte ; il compose une ligne de chant pour les mélodrames (texte parlé) transformant ainsi

l’ouvrage en œuvre musicale en continu.

4

Composition d’une cantate pour Londres, Apollo’s Invocation.

1885

- Orchestration du Cid et, simultanément, composition de Werther.

Nombreux voyages en France et à l’étranger

- Prix de Rome: Xavier Leroux, élève de Massenet.

- Août: voyage en Hongrie avec la Délégation d’Artistes Français.

- 30 novembre: création du Cid à l’Opéra de Paris.

1886

- Mars: mort de Marie Heilbron . Manon quitte l’affiche de la Salle Favart.

- Août: voyage à Bayreuth.

- Composition de Werther.

1887

- Janvier: Massenet surveille les représentations du Cid à Nantes,

- Avril: Le Cid à Anvers et à Bordeaux.

- Mars à juillet: orchestration de Werther, refusé par Carvalho, directeur de l’OpéraComique.

- 25 mai: incendie meurtrier à l’Opéra-Comique où disparaissent les partitions manuscrites

et inédites de La Grand-Tante, Paix et Liberté et Don César de Bazan

- Prix de Rome: Gustave Charpentier, élève de Massenet.

- Septembre: modification du rôle de Manon pour Sybil Sanderson qui vient de lui être

présentée. Massenet songe à lui confier le rôle principal d’Esclarmonde.

- 24 novembre, mariage de Juliette Massenet, fille unique du compositeur.

- Pendant l’automne, reconstitution de l’orchestration de Don César de Bazan pour Genève.

- 31 décembre : promu Officier dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur.

1888

- 2 février: Sybil Sanderson chante Manon à La Haye, en présence de Massenet.

- Avril à octobre: composition et orchestration d’Esclarmonde.

- Août: Massenet séjourne à Vevey. Travail du rôle d’Esclarmonde avec Sybil Sanderson.

1889

- Fin mars: Massenet fait la connaissance de Tchaïkovsky, de passage à Paris.

- Mai: Exposition Universelle. Esclarmonde à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Composition du Mage, destiné à l’Opéra, livret de Jean Richepin.

1890

- Prix de Rome: Gaston Carraud, élève de Massenet.

- Juillet: Orchestration du Mage.

- Octobre: voyage à Bruxelles pour Esclarmonde.

- Novembre: création de Manon à l’Opéra Impérial de Vienne.

1891

- 16 mars: création à Paris du Mage (31 représentations).

- Mai: le fonds Hartmann est racheté par les éditions Heugel.

- Mai: voyage à Londres: Manon à Covent Garden.

- Prix de Rome: Charles Silver, élève de Massenet.

- Juillet: achat d’une propriété à Pont-de-l’Arche dans l’Eure.

- Août: composition du ballet pour Vienne, Le Carillon.

- Octobre : reprise de Manon à l’Opéra-Comique avec Sybil Sanderson.

- Composition du poème symphonique Visions.

1892

- 16 février: création de Werther à Vienne, en allemand, et du ballet Le Carillon.

- Printemps à automne: composition de Thaïs.

- Massenet achève Kassya, laissé inachevé par Léo Delibes, mort l’année précédente.

1893

- 16 janvier : création de Werther à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Février: Werther remporte un succès immédiat dans toute la France et en Belgique.

Ces modifications autographes ont été vraisemblablement ajoutées rapidement après la création car elles se trouvent sur une 1ère

édition de la partition piano-chant de Manon.( coll. A. B.-M.), éditée par Heugel s.a. en 1999, improprement appelée version avec

récitatifs chantés (2nde version) . Sur la page de titre, cette mention manuscrite : « revoir sur toutes les partitions & traductions ».

5

- Printemps: composition du Portrait de Manon. Fin de Thaïs.

- Prix de Rome: André Bloch, élève de Guiraud et de Massenet.

- 16 octobre: 200è représentation de Manon.

- A la fin de l’année, composition de La Navarraise, dédiée à Ninon.

1894

- Werther commence une carrière internationale (Chicago, New-York, Londres, NouvelleOrléans etc...).

- 16 mars: création de Thaïs à l’Opéra de Paris.

- 8 mai: création du Portrait de Manon à l’Opéra-Comique.

- 20 juin: la Navarraise créée à Londres, à Covent Garden .

- Prix de Rome: Henri Rabaud, élève de Massenet.

- Eté: début de la composition de Grisélidis.

1895

- Eté: début de la composition de Cendrillon, à Pont-de-l’Arche.

- 3 octobre: création parisienne de la Navarraise à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Décembre: fin de l’orchestration de Cendrillon.

- 31 décembre: promu Commandeur dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur.

1896

- Janvier : création de la Navarraise à La Scala. Visite à Verdi à Gênes.

- 12 février : mort d’Ambroise Thomas.

- Mai : Refus de Massenet du poste de directeur du Conservatoire et démission de la chaire

de Professeur de Composition.

- Eté : début de la composition de Sapho (d’après le roman d’Alphonse Daudet).

- Décembre: orchestration de Sapho.

1897

- Composition de la Fantaisie pour violoncelle et orchestre.

- Mai: composition d’un oratorio La Terre Promise, écrit en souvenir d’Ambroise Thomas.

- Prix de Rome: Max d’Ollone, ancien élève de Massenet.

- Remaniement de Thaïs, composition du Tableau de l’oasis et du ballet de la Place

Publique.

- Septembre: différend avec le violoncelliste Jacques Hollmann à propos de la Fantaisie pour

violoncelle & orch

- 27 novembre: création de Sapho à l’Opéra-Comique.

1898

- Janvier: séjour à Monte-Carlo.

- 27 janvier: Massenet dirige un concert de ses oeuvres.

- 10 mars: première audition de la Fantaisie pour violoncelle et orchestre à Monte-Carlo par

Hollmann.

- 13 avril: reprise de Thaïs à l’Opéra de Paris dans la nouvelle version.

- Juillet: Sapho au Teatro Lirico de Milan.

- Eté: séjour à Pourville : reprise de la composition de Grisélidis.

1899

- 1er février: acquisition du château d’Egreville, Seine-et-Marne.

- 24 mai: création de Cendrillon à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Prix de Rome: Charles Levadé, ancien élève de Massenet.

- Orchestration de La Terre Promise pendant l’été.

- Décembre: voyage à Genève et Milan pour les représentations de Cendrillon.

- Massenet est promu Grand Officier dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur.

1900

- 15 mars: première audition de La Terre Promise à Paris.

- Prix de Rome: Florent Schmitt, ancien élève de Massenet.

- Eté: Composition du Jongleur de Notre-Dame.

1901

- Janvier-février: achèvement de Grisélidis.

- 20 novembre: création de Grisélidis à l’Opéra-Comique.

1902

6

- 18 février: premier voyage officiel de Massenet pour la création du Jongleur de NotreDame. Séjour au Palais princier; Massenet reçoit la Grand-Croix de l’ordre de Saint-Charles

des mains du Prince Albert 1er.

- Mars: répétitions de Grisélidis au Théâtre de La Monnaie à Bruxelles, puis 100è de Manon

à Vienne.

- Eté: achèvement du Concerto pour piano et orchestre, composition du Ier Acte de

Chérubin.

- Premiers pourparlers en vue d’un opéra d’après Rome vaincue d’Alexandre Parodi.

- Premières esquisses des Expressions Lyriques, de la Suite Théâtrale et de la Suite

Parnassienne.

1903

- 1er février: première audition du Concerto pour piano et orchestre.

- 9 février: Marie-Magdeleine en version scénique à Nice.

- Février: voyage à Monte-Carlo. Représentations d’Hérodiade et fêtes du centenaire de la

naissance de Berlioz; Massenet représente l’Institut de France et prononce un discours.

- 24 février: reprise de Werther à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Juillet: composition de Chérubin

- Juillet et août: premières atteintes sérieuses de la maladie du système digestif qui

emportera Massenet en 1912.

- Septembre: déménagement des Massenet au 48, rue de Vaugirard.

- Octobre: Thaïs au Teatro Lirico de Milan.

1904

- 4 février: création du ballet Cigale à l’Opéra-Comique.

- 10 mai: création parisienne du Jongleur de Notre-Dame à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Eté: premières esquisses d’Ariane, sur un livret de Catulle Mendès.

1905

- 13 janvier : 500è représentation de Manon à l’Opéra-Comique.

- 14 février : création de Chérubin à Monte-Carlo.

- 23 mai: reprise de Chérubin à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Octobre: composition et orchestration d’Ariane.

Décembre : composition de Thérèse.

1906

- Février: séjour à Monte-Carlo. Représentations du Roi de Lahore.

- Août: premier séjour de Massenet à Saint-Aubin (Calvados) dans la famille Wallace.

- 31 octobre: création d’Ariane à l’Opéra.

1907

- Fin janvier: séjour de Massenet à Nice pour les représentations d’Ariane.

- 7 février: création de Thérèse à Monte-Carlo.

- Juin: Thaïs entre au répertoire de l’Opéra de Paris, qui donne aussi 40 représentations d’Ariane

la même année.

- Composition d’un ballet destiné à Monte-Carlo, Espada.

- Juillet: Massenet remanie le livret de Bacchus après des discussions avec Catulle Mendès.

- Août: séjour à Saint-Aubin, composition laborieuse de Bacchus.

- Décembre: voyage à Turin. Dernier séjour en Italie.

1908

- Détérioration de la santé du compositeur.

- Février: Séjour monégasque à l’occasion de la reprise de Thérèse.

- 13 février: création d’Espada à Monte-Carlo.

- Juillet - août: deux séjours à Saint-Aubin. Composition du Tableau des Lettres pour

Sapho. Premières esquisses de Don Quichotte. Correction des épreuves de Bacchus.

- 27 septembre: 100è

représentation du Jongleur de Notre-Dame à l’Opéra-Comique.

- Septembre-octobre: Reprises de la Navarraise, du Jongleur de Notre-Dame et de Cendrillon à la

Gaîté-Lyrique.

1909

- 22 janvier: reprise de Sapho à l’Opéra-Comique augment du Tableau des Lettres.

- Printemps: fin de la composition de Don Quichotte.

- 5 mai: création de Bacchus à l’Opéra de Paris, retiré après cinq représentations.

7

- Juillet: séjour à Saint-Aubin. Remaniement du livret tiré par Henri Cain du Rome Vaincue

d’Alexandre Parodi. Massenet change le titre pour l’appeler Vesta.

- Septembre: second séjour à Saint-Aubin; composition de Vesta.

1910

- Présidence de l’Institut de France pendant l’année 1910.

- Mi-février - mi-mars: séjour à Monte-Carlo.

- 19 février: création de Don Quichotte.

- Première audition de la Nef triomphale, (pour chœur et orchestre) commandée à Massenet

par le Prince Albert 1er à l’occasion de l’inauguration du Musée océanographique. Reprise

de Thérèse.

- Printemps: orchestration de Vesta rebaptisée Roma.

- Juillet: séjour à Saint-Aubin, remaniement et orchestration d’Amadis.

- Révision du livret de Panurge.

- Fin août: Massenet hospitalisé d’urgence à Paris.

- 29 décembre: Don Quichotte à la Gaîté-Lyrique à Paris.

1911

221 représentations d’opéras de Massenet dans l’année.

- Printemps: Composition et orchestration de Panurge

- 19 mai: à l’Opéra-Comique: Thérèse et, en seconde partie de programme l’Heure

Espagnole de Ravel.

- 10 décembre: Gala Massenet à l’Opéra de Paris.

1912

- 17 février: création de Roma à Monte-Carlo.

- 24 avril: reprise de Roma à l’Opéra de Paris.

- Juin: Massenet termine Cléopâtre.

- Juillet: séjour à Vichy pour Roma.

- Début août: aggravation de l’état de santé du compositeur .

- 9 août: Massenet quitte Egreville et rentre seul à Paris pour consulter ses médecins.

- 13 août : mort de Massenet à Paris.

Créations posthumes

1913

- Publication posthume des Expressions Lyriques

- 25 avril: création de Panurge à Paris, à la Gaîté-Lyrique.

1914

- 23 février : création de Cléopâtre à Monte-Carlo.

1922

- 1

er avril : création d’Amadis à Monte-Carlo

Born in Montaud (Saint-Étienne) on May 12, 1842, died in Paris on August 13, 1912.

Sour grandfather is a teacher in Strasbourg. His father, Jules Émile Frédéric, an officer in the armies of the First Empire, was director of an agricultural equipment company from 1814 to 1847. His mother Eléonore-Adelaïde Royer de Marancour (1809-1875), was a good pianist who composed a few pieces. She gives piano lessons. The family moved to Paris in 1847.

From 1851 he received his first piano lessons from his mother. Rejected for the first time in 1851, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory on January 10, 1853. There he followed the courses of Augustin Savard (1861-1942) for harmony and A. Laurent for preparatory piano class.

His parents moved to Chambéry in 1854. He tried to reach Paris, but was quickly brought back to his parents. Welcomed in Paris by his sister Julie, he could resume lessons at the Conservatory the following year. He obtained a first piano prize in 1859, but did not get along with François Bazin, his composition teacher.

He was impressed by the audition of L'Enfance du Christ by Berlioz in 1855 and followed the concerts of works by berlioz and Wagner at the Cirque Napoléon (inaugurated by Napoleon III in 1852, which has since become Cirque d'Hiver), the concerts that Wagner gave in person in 1860 during his stay in Paris.

He studies harmony with Henri Reber. He gives a few concerts. In 1861 he entered Ambroise Thomas' composition class in Benoist's organ class. The same year, he published with Brandus and Dufour a Grande Fantaisie de concert on the Pardon of Ploërmel , on a theme by Giacomo Meyerbeer. In 1862 he won a second Prize for fugue and counterpoint.

The material life of the family is uncertain. His mother gives piano lessons. He played the triangle at the Théâtre du Gymnase, then for four years, he was timpanist at the Théâtre lyrique. There he familiarized himself with the repertoire.

massenet

After an unfortunate attempt in 1862, he won the First Prix de Rome the following year with his cantata David Rizzio . During his three-year stay in Rome, he met Franz Liszt, and Louise-Constance de Gressy (known as Miss de Sainte-Marie, nicknamed Ninon by Massenet) one of his piano students recommended by Liszt, who would become his wife. In Rome, he composed a Requiem , and a suite for orchestra, Pompeîa , which he called “Symphonie” (premiered in Paris on February 24, 1866).

Jules Massenet in Rome in 1864. Pencil by Clément Chaplain.

Back in Paris in 1866, he provided for himself by giving piano lessons and thought to publish trendy piano pieces. He married in October with Ninon.

The meeting with Georges Hartmann who will be his editor and his mentor, as well as a commission from the Opéra Comique, are decisive for his career. On April 3, 1867, he premiered his first lyrical work, La grand 'aante with Marie Heilbron in the title role . The same year, his cycle of romances Poème d'avril opus 14, on poems by Armand Silvestre and his cantata Peace and freedom were performed for the emperor's birthday. During these years, he took part in composition competitions where his operas did not obtain prizes.

His only daughter, Juliette, was born in 1868.

He quickly gained notoriety, and was one of the young noted composers of Paris. His compositions are published. He enlisted in the National Guard during the Paris Commune (on March 29, 1871, conscription was abolished, and all valid citizens were part of the National Guard). He participated in the founding of the National Music Society.

massenet and Gounod

Jules Massenet and Charles Gounod at the Cid's general.

In 1872 his comic opera Don César de Bazan was featured at the Opéra-Comique de Paris for 13 performances. In 1873, he composed the stage music for Les Erinnyes by Lecomte de Lisle played at the Odeon and created Drame sacré Marie-Magdeleine with Pauline Viardot in the title role. He reworked the Erinnyes which were performed at the Gaîté Lyrique on May 15th. He was awarded the Legion of Honor on July 26.

In 1877, his opera The King of Lahore , the culmination of several years of work, was performed with success. The Italian publisher Ricordi proposes to have it translated into Italian and proposes another subject: Herodias.

 Miss La Mare in the role of Charlotte in Werther, Opéra-Comique de Paris, 1907Massenet was appointed professor of composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris in 1878, replacing Ambroise Thomas who became the director of the establishment. He has a reputation for being a good teacher. He has among his students Gabriel Pierné, Gustave Charpentier, Florent Schmitt, Alfred Bruneau, Guy Ropartz, Reynaldo Hahn, Charles Koechlin and Georges Enesco. On February 13, Il Re de Lahore (with an additional painting) won triumphant success at the Teatro Regio in Turin. On November 30, Massenet was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts (the Institute), against Camille Saint-Saëns.

Refused because of his biblical subject by Vaucourbeil, director of the Paris Opera, he created Hérodiade , the score of which was completed in 1879, on December 19, 1881 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

In 1882, he began to compose by Manon Lescaut on a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the short story of Abbé Prévost. This work requires two years of work. On this occasion, he visited Father Prévost's home in The Hague. Manon Lescaut premiered at the Opéra-Comique in January 1884 with Marie Heilbron in the title role (she died in 1886). Le Cid was created in 1885, and the same year he started work on Werther . In 1887, he modified Manon's part for the young American soprano Sybil Sanderson, and composed Esclarmonde to enhance it. He then created Amadis and Le Mage .

Costumes of the penitents for Esclarmonde.

In 1891, he was affected by the bankruptcy of Hartmann, the fund of which was transferred to the publisher Heugel. The following year he was in Austria, for the performance of Werther and one of his new ballets, Le Carillon . On October 16, it reached the 200 th representation Manon.

 Sybil Sanderson (1865-1903)

For Sybil Sanderson, he composed Thaïs after Anatole France which premiered at the Paris Opera in March 1894. In maize, he created Le portrait de Manon at the Opéra-Comique and in June La Navarraise in London, at the Covent Garden. It completes and orchestrates Kassya that Léo Delibes, deceased, was unable to complete. He received the cross of Commander of the Legion of Honor on December 31, 1895.

On the death of Ambroise Thomas, he refused the direction of the conservatory and left his post, claiming that his activity as a creator forced him too often to have a replacement (generally André Gédalge).

He created Sapho after Daudet at the Opéra-Comique in November 1897, and Cendrillon , composed for several years in May 1899.

The Château d'Égreville, bought in 1899.

He settled in Égreville, south of Fontainebleau. There he completed his work of sacred music, The Promised Land , which was premiered at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris. In 1900 composed the music for Phèdre by Racine, performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon. In 1901, Grisélidis , after Boccace, was shown at the Opéra-Comique. The juggler of Notre-Dame , will be created in Monte Carlo; on this occasion, he was decorated with the Order of Saint Charles by Prince Albert 1st .

In 1903, Louis Diémer created his piano concerto which immediately fell into oblivion. Massenet does not even mention it in his autobiography. Sybil Sanderson died of a bad flu in May.

In January 1905 we reached the 500 th representation Manon . The same year, Mary Garden performed Chérubin in Monte-Carlo. In 1906, Ariane performed at the Opera with Lucy Arbell (met in 1904), Bacchus had no success unlike Don Quixote , created in Monte-Carlo in 1910.

Lucy Arbel (1882-1947) as Queen Amahelli in Bacchus. Photograph by Nadar.

In February 1911, he published 5 articles in the newspaper “Les Echos”, entitled Souvenirs de Théâtre . From November, 29 additional chapters appear in general on a weekly basis, until “Pensées posthumes” on July 11, 1912. The whole is published the same year under the title My memories .

He travels to Brussels in March, to supervise the rehearsals of Grisélidis at La Monnaie, followed by a stay in Vienna where Massenet conducts Manon during the 100 th at the Imperial Opera.

Master Massenet reading his score “Cigale”, to his interpreters: Mme. Mariquita; Henri Cain; Miss Luz Chavita and Miss Jeanne Chasles.

rectangle texts 

Documents

ÉMILE VUILLERMOZ, History of music . “The great historical studies”, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris 1949 (8th edition), p. 295-298

MASSENET (1842-1912)

A year after Chabrier, in Montaud, near Saint-Étienne, was born the twenty-first child of an imperial officer on half-pay, Jules-Émile-Frédéric Massenet, who was to mark not only a date but a decisive step in the development of our national lyrical style. During his long career, which spanned from 1867 to 1912, this skilful strategist fought over thirty theatrical battles and almost won them all. Such a continuity in fortune has earned him much jealousy, but posterity begins to judge him with a little more coolness. He came very early to Paris where his life was devoted entirely to his art or, more exactly, to his absorbing profession. After brilliant success at the Conservatory in the classes of Bazin, Reber and Ambroise Thomas, he obtained the Grand Prix de Rome,A very welcome symphonic overture and a Requiem that has remained unpublished, a work as complete as his Marie-Madeleine, which is one of the most significant productions of his entire career.

On his return to Paris he received a warm welcome in symphonic concerts, then inaugurated his prestigious theatrical campaign with his Grand 'Auntwhich opens the doors of the Opéra-Comique to him. He's twenty-five. From this moment this methodical and relentless worker will give us twenty-three operas and comic operas, ten scores of stage music, three ballets, six sacred dramas, twenty symphonic works, two hundred melodies, about thirty duets, trios and choirs, religious music and piano pieces. Such a production assured him a considerable influence on the musical climate of his time: this influence was made still more decisive by his technical education. Massenet, in fact, appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory, trained a very large number of disciples who, while retaining their personality, all kept the more or less clear imprint of the melodic genius of their master. ThatProdigal Child and the Elected Damsel by Debussy owe this specialist in the “avowed melody” to underline the importance of the elements of grace, tenderness and affectionate charm popularized by the Massenetic style.

Massenet was a remarkable musician. It is obviously not in certain overly complacent romances and in certain overly easy melodic swoons that we will find proof of this. But if we study his Orchestral Suites , his ballets and some of his sacred or profane dramas written on the fringes of the theater, we quickly realize the exceptional gifts possessed by this composer whose only weakness was the desire to please and to please at any cost. By weakening it and bringing it closer to popular sensibility, he developed the distinctly French tradition of Charles Gounod, so one can validly, taking this nuance into account, compare the author of Faust to Ingres and that of Manon to Bouguereau. .

However, he suffered, very superficially, certain foreign influences. Attentive to all trends in fashion and even snobbery, and anxious to prove his pen virtuosity, he was Wagnerian with Esclarmonde and mascagnist with La Navarraise , but these manifestations of opportunism did not modify the depth of his nature, which is everything. simply that of a painter of the eternal feminine. Fourteen of his operas bear the names of women, and when he leaves the theater for a moment it is to sing Eve, the Virgin or Mary Magdalene. Whatever the subject treated, it is always in a love song that this musician puts most of his thought. All the rest is there only to disorient this haunting obsession with the decor and the atmosphere.

Massenet, who seeks the essential under the accidental, seems to want to prove to us that all lovers are sisters and speak the same language. In Don Cesar de Bazan, the beautiful Maritana lets us hear Spain's cry of love, which Dulcinea, Chimène and Anita will resume in other atmospheres. In the King of Lahore we collect, thanks to Sita, the mysterious spells of India; in the Mage, Varedha and Anahita will bring us the perfume of Persia; Thaïs and Cleopatra, the voice of Egypt; Ariadne, that of Greece; Grisélidis, that of the French Middle Ages; Esclarmonde, that of Byzantium; Herodias, that of Judea; Fausta, that of ancient Rome; Man on, that of our gallant century; Thérèse, that of the Revolution; Charlotte, that of German romanticism; Sapho, that of modern Paris, and Cinderella that of the fairy kingdom. Across time and space it is always the same sensual call that resounds in all these scores.

This passionate cry of Massenet has echoed throughout the lyric theater for three quarters of a century. He has obsessed the imagination of countless composers who, thanks to him, have learned beyond our borders to speak of love with the French accent. This cry has a carnal sincerity which shines neither by distinction nor by modesty, but modesty and distinction have they ever been virtues compatible with the fierce violence of Venus "entirely to her attached prey"? On the other hand, the deeply human accent of these amorous effusions sometimes reaches, as in Wertherfor example, to a real pathos which disturbs our subconsciousness, even when our conscience resists it. Massenet knew how to feminize the lyric vocabulary by giving it grace, charm, softness, flexibility and voluptuous abandon. As Alfred Bruneau noted: "he undertook to create a language of tenderness and he created it". We obviously marketed the formula to excess and it was the clumsy imitators of Massenet who eventually got tired of this standardized erotic style, but the inventor of these vocal caresses gave so much joy to the beautiful listeners of his time that historians must respectfully salute the glorious reign of Julius the Beloved!

Moreover, if we still doubted the deep artistic value of Massenet's music, it would suffice to reread the article that Henry Maret devoted to Manon.the day after its creation. “Poor Manon,” he wrote, “who would have predicted that one day you would be surrounded by all this noise? You, pretty girl of this elegant and light century, here you are, by learned music, equal to the Valkyries! What a fuss, good God! I do not know if Mr. Massenet has ever read Manou Lescaut but one would not suspect it to hear his lyrical drama. From this simple and graceful pastel he made a frightful fresco! ... "So that a score which seems so simple to us have confused and offended to such an extent, in 1884, the ears of a respected critic who suffers from his Wagnerism , it must have contained, despite everything, despite appearances, precious elements of originality and novelty for the listeners of its time!

Catalog of works

Free and free sheet music by Jules Massenet

1866, Alleluja, for 4 a cappella voices (edition, E &. A. Girod nd.)

1867, La Grand'Tante, opéra-comique in 1 act on a libretto by Jules Adenis and Charles Grandvallet, premiered on April 3, 1867 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris

1872, Don César de Bazan, opéra-comique in 3 acts on a libretto by (A. Ph. D'Ennery and .J. Chantepic, after a play by d'Ennery and PE Pinel Dumanoir, premiered on November 30 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (G. Hartmann edition 1872)

1873, Marie-Magdeleine oratorio on a text by Gallet, (soloists, choir and orchsetre), premiered in 1873 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris: February 9, 1903 in Nice (edition, Hartmann 1873; Heugel 1905)

1873, Stage music for Les Erinnyes by Leconte de Lisle, premiered on January 6, 1873 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris (edition, Heugel nd.)

1874, Scenic Scenes , 4th orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann 1874)

1875, Elegie , romance on a poem by L. Gallet (edition E. & A. Girod 1875)

1875, Eve , mystery on a libretto by Gallet, created on March 18, 1875 at the Société de l'Harmonie sacrée de Paris (edition, Hartmann nd.)

1875, Stage music for Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, premiered on April 4, 1875 at the Théâtre des Nations in Paris

1875, Stage music for A drama under Philippe II by Porto-Riche, premiered on April 14, 1875, at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris

1876, Stage music for La vie de Bohème by Barriere et Murger, premiered in 1876 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris

1877, Le Roi de Lahore, opera in 5 acts on a libretto by L. Gallet, premiered on April 27, 1877, at the Paris Opera (G. Hartmann 1883 edition)

1877, Hetman (Déroulède February 2, 1877 ebda.)

1878, Narcisse, Old Idyll on a poem by P. Collin, for soloist, choir and orchestra (G. Hartmann edition 1878)

1880, La Vierge , oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra, premiered in 1880 at the Historical Concerts of the Opera in Paris

1880, Chant Provençal, "Mireille", romance on a poem by JM Carré (edition, Hartmann 1880)

1880, Stage music for Michel Strogoff by d'Ennery and J. Veroe, premiered on November 17, 1880 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris

1880, Poème d'amore , 6 romances on poems by P. Robiquet (edition, Hartmann 1880)

1880, Hungarian Scenes , 2nd orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann 1880)

1880, Remember Marie on a text by G. Boyer, for soloist, choir and orchestra (manuscript Bibliothèque nationale de France)

1881, Hérodiade, opera in 3 acts on a libretto by P. Millet and H. Grémont after Flaubert, premiered on December 19, 1881 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels (G. Hartmann 1881 edition)

1883, Stage music for Nana Sahib de Richepin, premiered on December 20, 1883 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris (autograph manuscript, National Library of France, music, Conservatory collections)

1884, Manon opera in 3 acts on a libretto by H. Meilhac and Ph. Gille, based on the novel by Abbé Prévost, premiered on January 19, 1884 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (Heugel 1925 edition)

1884, Stage music for Théodora de Sardou, premiered on December 26, 1884 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris (autograph manuscript, National Library of France, music, Conservatory collection)

1885, Le Cid , opera in 4 acts on a libretto by Ennery, Gallet and E. Blau after Corneille), premiered on November 30, 1885 at the Paris opera 1885 (edition, G. Hartmann)

1886 Christmas pagan, romance on s heart a poem A. Sylvestre, (edition, Hartmann 1886)

1886, Werther, lyric drama 3 acts on a libretto by Blau, Millet and Hartmann after Goethe, premiered on February 16, 1892 at the Vienna Opera (Heugel 1892 edition)

1888, Pensée d'automne , romance on a poem by A. Sylvestre, (edition, Hartmann & Cie 1888)

1890, Esclarmonde , lyric drama 4 acts on a libretto by Gallet and L. Gramont, premiered May 15, 1889 at the Opéra-Comique Paris (G. Hartmann 1890 edition)

1890, La Fédérale, on a poem by G. Boyer, March of the “Federation of Musical Societies of France” on the occasion of the centenary of the Federation, for choir (edition, Heugel 1946)

1891, Le Mage, opera in 4 acts on a libretto by J. Richepin, premiered March 16, 1891 at the Paris Opera (G. Hartmann 1891 edition)

1891, Dramatic scenes , 3rd orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann 1891)

1892, Le Carillon , ballet on an argument by Ernest van Dyck and C. de Rodaz, premiered on February 21, 1892 at the Vienna Opera (edition, Heugel 1892)

1894, La Navarraise, lyrical episode in 2 acts on a libretto by Claretie and Cain, premiered on June 20, 1894 at Covent Garden in London (edition, Heugel 1894)

1894, Le Portrait de Manon, opéra-comique in 1 act on a libretto by G. Boyer, premiered on May 8, 1894 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (edition, Heugel 1894)

1894, Thaïs , lyric comedy in 3 acts on a libretto by Gallet after Anatole France, premiered March 16, 1894 at the Paris Opera (edition, Heugel 1894)

1895, Hymn of love , romance on a poem by P. Desachy (edition, Heugel & Cie. 1885)

1897, Fantasy for cello and orchestra (edition, Heugel & Cie. 1897)

1897, Sapho, lyrical piece in 2 acts on a libretto by H. Cain and Bernède, based on a short story by Alphonse Daudet, premiered on November 27, 1897 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (edition, Heugel 1898)

1899, Cendrillon, magical opera in 4 acts on a libretto by H. Cain based on the tale by Perrault, premiered on May 24, 1899 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (Heugel 1899 edition)

1899, The Promised Land, oratorio in three parts, on a text by Massenet, after the Vulgate, created on March 15, 1900 Paris, at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris (edition, Heugel 1900)

1900, Brumaire , orchestral overture for the play by E. Noël (edition, Heugel 1900)

1901, Grisélidis , opera in 1 prologue and 3 acts on a libretto by PA Sylvestre and E. Armand, premiered on November 20, 1901 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (edition (edition, Heugel 1901)

1902, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, opera in 3 acts on a libretto by M. Léna, premiered on February 18, 1902 in Monte Carlo (edition; Heugel, 1902)

1903, Concerto for piano and orchestra (edition, Heugel 1903)

1904, La Cigale , ballet-entertainment based on an argument by H. Cain, premiered on February 4, 1904 at the Opéra-Comique de Paris (edition, Heugel 1904)

1904, Stage music for Le Grillon du foyer de Francménil after Dickens, premiered on October 1, 1904 Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris (edition, Heugel 19041)

1905, Chérubin, lyric comedy in 3 acts on a libretto by F. de Croisset and H. Cain, premiered on February 14, 1905 in Monte-Carlo (edition, Heugel 1905)

1906 Ariadne , opera in five acts with libretto by Catulle Mendes, created on 1 st November 1906 at the Paris Opera (edition Heugel 1906)

1907, Stage music for The King's Mantle by Jean Aicard, premiered on November 22, 1907 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris

1907, Thérèse , musical drama in 2 acts on a libretto by J. Claretie, premiered on February 7, 1907 in Monte Carlo (edition, Heugel 1907)

1908, Espada , ballet based on an argument by R. Maugars, premiered February 13, 1908 in Monte-Carlo (edition, heugel 1908)

1909, Bacchus, opera in 4 acts on a libretto by Catulle Mendès, premiered May 5, 1909 at the Paris Opera (edition, Heugel 1909)

1909, Stage music for Perce-Neige et les sept gnomes by J. Dortzal after the Brothers Grimm, premiered on February 2, 1909 at the Théâtre Fémina in Paris

1910, Don Quixote, heroic comedy in 5 acts on a libretto by H. Cain after Cervantes and J. le Lorrain), premiered on February 19, 1910 in Monte-Carlo (Heugel 1909 edition)

1912, Panurge , lyric comedy in 4 acts on a libretto by G. Spitzmüller and M. Bonkey, after Rabelais), premiered on April 25, 1913 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris (edition, 1912)

1912, Roma , tragedy in 5 acts on a libretto by H. Cain after A. Parodi, premiered on February 17, 1912 in Monte-Carlo (edition, Heugel 1912)

1914, Stage music for Jerusalem by Rivollet, premiered on January 17, 1914 in Monte Carlo

Stage music for L'Improvisatore by G. Zaffira [Autograph manuscript, National Library of France, music, Conservatory collection)

Stage music for Le Crocodile by Sardou, premiered on December 12, 1886 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris (edition, Hartmann nd.)

Stage music for Phèdre de Racine, premiered on December 8, 1900 at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris (edition, Heugel 1901)

sd. (opus 14), Poème d'avril, 14 romances on poems by A. Sylvestre (Hartmann edition nd.)

sd. various pieces for piano 2 and 4 hands, transcriptions for piano or chamber music

nd., (opus 13), First orchestral suite in 4 parts (edition, Durand nd.)

nd., Amadis, opera on a libretto by J. Claretie, premiered on April 1, 1922 in Monte-Carlo (edition, Heugel 1913)

nd., Ave Maris Stella, motet for 2 voices and cello ad libitum (manuscript, National Library of France)

nd., Cantata in memory of Blessed Jean-Gabriel Perboyre for 4 equal voices

nd., Choice in 2 collections of 20 melodies each , (I: Hartmann nd.; II: Heugel 1926; plus 4 additional volumes at Heugel)

nd., Cléopatre , opera on a libretto by L. Payen and H. Cain, premiered February 23, 1914 in Monte-Carlo (Heugel 1915 edition)

nd., Two pieces for violin and piano (edition, Durand, nd.)

nd., different scenes for choir

nd., Poème pastoral , 6 romances on poems by Florian and A. Sylvestre, for soloist, three-voice choir and piano (Hartmann edition nd.)

nd., Alsatian Scenes, Souvenirs , 7th orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann nd.)

nd., Fairy scenes , 6th orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann nd.)

nd., Neapolitan Scenes , 5th orchestral suite (edition, G. Hartmann nd.)

nd., Parnassian Suite , musical fresco in 4 parts on a text by M. Léna, orchestra, choir and narrator (edition, Heugel 1913)

nd., Theatrical suite on a text by M. Léna, for orchestra, voice and narrator (edition, Heugel 1913)

nd., A Flemish wedding , to a poem by G. Chouquet, for orchestra and choir

 Bibliography

Association Jules Massenet : a rich site, with a methodical description of the works.

BOUVET CH, Massenet . Paris 1929

BOYER N., Three French musicians: Gounod, M., Debussy. P. Farré, Paris 1946

BRANCOUR R., Massenet . Paris 1922 (1931, second edition)

BRANGER JEAN-CHRISTOPHE and RAMAUT ALBAN (conductor),  The opera libretto at the time of Massenet. University Press of Saint-Étienne 2002

BRANGER JEAN-CHRISTOPHE, “Manon” by Jules Massenet or The twilight of the opéra-comique. Editions Serpinoise 1999

BRUNEAU ALFRED, Massenet, Paris 1935

BRUYR J., Massenet . Ed. Of the South-East, Lyon 1964

COLSON P., Massenet: Manon . London 1947

COQUIS A., Jules Massenet , Seghers, Paris 1965

DEBUSSY CLAUDE, Massenet . In "Monsieur Croche Antidilettante", Paris 1926

DELMAS M., Massenet, Paris 1932

DOUCHE SYLVIE, Massenet and his peers from Castillon to Humperdinck. Zurfluh, Paris 2003

FAURÉ G., Massenet . In "Opinions musicales", Paris 1930

FINCK HT, Massenet and his Operas. London 1910

HARDING J., Massenet . Dent, London 1969

Homage to Massenet . Claude Bussy 1997 editions

Jules Massenet . In "Musica", September 1912 [special issue of the review, photos, articles by Fernand Divoire and Gabriel Dupont]

MASSENET ANNE,  Jules Massenet in full . Fallois 2001 editions

MASSENET JULES, My memories , Paris 1912

MASSENET JULES, Sapho, La Navaraise. In “L'Avant-Scène Opéra” (217), Première loges, Paris 2003

OLIVIER BRIGITTE, Jules Massenet: Itinerary for a musical theater. Actes Sud, Arles 1996

POUGIN A., Massenet . Paris 1914

SCHNEIDER L., Massenet . Paris 1908 (1926, second edition)

SÉRÉ O., Massenet. Paris 1911 [catalog of works]

SERVIÈRES G., Modern French Music , Paris 1897

SOLENIÈRE J. E .F.,   Massenet Critical study . Paris 1897

SOUBIES A., Massenet , Paris 1912

JULES MASSENET

b St. Etienne, May 12, 1842; d Paris, August 13, 1912

Jules Massenet was the most prominent and prolific composer of French opera in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with more than 30 operas to his credit. Born the twelfth child in a typical bourgeois provincial family, Jules first studied piano with his mother. His skills were sufficient to be accepted by the Paris Conservatoire, where in 1859, he won first prize for piano performance. He spent his early adulthood giving lessons, providing entertainment at local cafés and playing timpani in the orchestra pits of the major opera houses.

Massenet studied composition with Ambroise Thomas, a celebrated composer of an earlier generation whose most significant works were Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868). Jules won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1863 (with Hector Berlioz’ encouragement) and met Charles Garnier (a former Prix winner who would design the Paris and Monte Carlo Opéras) as well as a newly ordained Franz Liszt while residing at the students’ Italian abode, the Villa Medici. Liszt introduced him to his future wife, Louise-Constance de Gressy, then an aspiring piano student.

A requirement for winners of the Prix de Rome was to compose a one-act opera for the Opéra-Comique. This would be Massenet’s first staged work, La grand’tante (1867), coinciding with the Exposition Universelle, which would also yield Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos, Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Jacques Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. Massenet’s further attempts at opera in the years that followed were fruitless as cultural city life was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) and the siege of Paris (he and his friend Georges Bizet would both serve together in the National Guard).

Like several other composers of his day, Massenet’s abilities had the good fortune to attract the attention of Pauline Viardot, a mezzo-soprano from the immensely talented García family (the composer would remember her from the days she sang Gluck’s Orphée at the Théâtre-Lyrique when he was a pit musician). She promoted his oratorio, Marie-Magdeleine, singing the title role. The work premiered in 1873 at the Théâtre de l’Odéon, and later, during Lent in repertory with Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by the grand master himself at the Opéra-Comique (the theater’s then impresario, Camille de Locle was a close friend and collaborator).

In 1876, Massenet’s Orientalist opera Le roi de Lahore was accepted by the Opéra and premiered the following year at the recently opened Palais Garnier. Representatives of the Italian House of Ricordi heard the piece and arranged with the composer’s publisher, Georges Hartmann, to have it staged in Turin. The success of Il re di Lahore later at La Scala in 1879 led to an Italian commission for Erodiade (Hérodiade), based on a poem by Gustave Flaubert concerning the biblical legend of Herodias, her daughter Salome, her husband Herode and John the Baptist. Massenet played his score for Ricordi while he was in Paris for the French premiere of Verdi’s Aida at the Opéra, but the publisher uneasily postponed the premiere, leading to the first performances at Brussels’ Théâtre de la Monnaie in 1881.

In the fickle music business of the late 19th century and eclipsed by a sudden public interest in Wagner, Paris’ leading composers were not necessarily guaranteed an open door at the Opéra or even the Opéra-Comique, so they had to be creative in pursuing other houses. Massenet would be lucky and was afforded auspicious premieres of his next few operas at either of these houses: Manon, based on the novel by Abbé Prévost (1884), Le Cid (1885), based on the play by Guillén de Castro y Bellís, Esclarmonde (1889), Le mage (1891), Thaïs (1894), and Le portrait de Manon (1894). However, Werther (1892) was produced in Vienna and La Navarraise (1894) saw its premiere in London. Massenet’s relationship with Raoul Gunsbourg’s Opéra de Monte-Carlo would begin with Le jongleur de Notre-Dame (1902) and would yield six new works.

Massenet’s later operas were largely based on fairy tale (Cendrillon, 1899; Grisélidis, 1901), Greco-Roman history and mythology (Ariane, 1906; Bacchus, 1909; Roma, 1912; Cléopâtre (1914); and literature [Sapho (after Alphonse Daudet); 1897; Chérubin (a continuation of Beaumarchais’ Figaro trilogy); 1905; Don Quichotte (after Cervantes), 1910]. His style has been accused of being static or even retrograde, yet his colorful, ethereal orchestration and long-breathed lyricism would have a profound effect on Italy’s giovane scuola, including Giacomo Puccini. In turn, Massenet nodded to current trends, producing the veristic La Navarraise, the textually Symbolist Thaïs and the Wagnerian Esclarmonde. He was a tireless worker willing to explore extensions of his own style, memorizing his libretti with attention to stress, composing without the use of a piano and producing a premiere nearly every year of his professional life. Massenet’s legacy has been overshadowed by others, yet the endurance of Manon, Werther and Cendrillon along with occasional revivals of Thaïs, Le Cid, Don Quichotte and Esclarmonde cement and secure his place in the pantheon of French opera.