# Jules Massenet - His Life and Works



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

MusicWeb International has just published an article I wrote about Jules Massenet's operas:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Aug/Massenet_article.pdf

It covers the lot, from the early works of the 1860s to the posthumous works half a century later.

Enjoy!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

WOW ( in capitals) well done Simon, very interesting reading.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> WOW ( in capitals) well done Simon, very interesting reading.


Glad you liked it!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Excellent survey. A good reference. Makes me aware of how little Massenet I really know.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Excellent survey. A good reference. Makes me aware of how little Massenet I really know.


Thank you! Many of Massenet's best operas aren't well known; I didn't expect the late operas would be as good as they were.


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## Scarr (Jun 3, 2014)

Just getting to know Massenet so thanks for this.itll help me along with my journey!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Scarr said:


> Just getting to know Massenet so thanks for this.itll help me along with my journey!


A journey worth taking!


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Beautifully written Simon thank you for posting. Like for others here ,you have opened up new 
possibilities for me.

IN over 30 years in living in London I've only seen two of his Opera's and hardly recall any missed opportunities at all. There has been a fashion for unearthing all the early Opera's of Verdi or alternative versions by Rossini, Donizetti etc but hardly anything from the great days of the Paris Opera.

I love to hear French Opera including versions of Italian Operas, but with the exception of Offenbach I do struggle to recall the Tunes of the big arias. Is it only me ) ) or does that have something to do with the current lack of popularity compared to Italian composers?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Belowpar said:


> Beautifully written Simon thank you for posting. Like for others here ,you have opened up new
> possibilities for me.
> 
> IN over 30 years in living in London I've only seen two of his Opera's and hardly recall any missed opportunities at all. There has been a fashion for unearthing all the early Opera's of Verdi or alternative versions by Rossini, Donizetti etc but hardly anything from the great days of the Paris Opera.
> ...


My pleasure! Those are very good questions, and I'll answer them in two parts. (Bear with me; it's midnight, so hopefully I'm compos!)

*First, why aren't French operas done more often?*

As you point out, a lot of bel canto operas were lost and then rediscovered. After the two world wars, much of the operatic repertoire was lost, and the performance tradition broken. Verismo and Wagner in the late 19th century had already made Italian bel canto and French grand opéra seem old-fashioned. Singing styles also changed, making operas difficult to perform.

For much of the twentieth century, Donizetti was known by one tragedy and two comedies, and Bellini only as vehicles for a star soprano. I've read books that say that Rossini was noisy rubbish, and unsingable to boot, while most Verdi (except for _Otello_ and _Falstaff_) was either crude and bombastic (the galley operas) or popular but not respectable (_Rig_, _Trav_, _Trov_). It wasn't until Callas and Sutherland that Donizetti, Bellini and early Verdi began to re-enter the repertoire, while the Rossini rediscovery really began in the '80s.

So: Why did French operas _not_ re-enter the repertoire?

Italy is a less *centralised *country than France, and there are more major opera houses scattered throughout the country. Italian towns like Pesaro and Bergamo made the rediscovery of composers born there a source of civic pride. Italy has re-established most of their composers: Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and Donizetti, and even Mercadante, the brothers Ricci and Pacini are performed. Although Compiègne, Saint Etienne and Montpellier have staged obscure operas, French (musical) culture is - and was - centred on Paris. Only half the Paris Opéra repertoire is French. The last time they staged Meyerbeer, for instance, was 1985 (_Robert le Diable_). This is changing; the Opéra Comique's mission now includes performing lost classics (e.g. Herold's _Zampa_ and _Pré aux clercs_, Grétry), and the Palazzetto Bru Zane is dedicated to rediscovering the French musical heritage of the 19th century.

*Lack of familiarity.* Many of these composers and operas aren't household names, so why should opera houses risk putting on an opera which might not pull in the punters, and might be expensive to stage, when they could produce _Carmen_ or _Butterfly_ and get bums on seats?

*A long-standing prejudice against French opera.* Massenet, Thomas and Gounod are often thought of as sentimental, while comic operas are dismissed as lightweight. The received wisdom is that grand opéra (particularly Meyerbeer) is massive and unwieldy cardboard theatre - spectacle at the expense of music, drama or depth, the equivalent of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals. True, spectacle was a feature of grand opéra - but spectacle is also in Wagner, Verdi and Richard Strauss. Nor were they all spectacle; often half the opera was intimate, private scenes. The best grand opéras, while entertaining, were musically innovative, serious works on social, religious and historical themes. They were compared to the masterworks of Beethoven and Mozart, rather than to bel canto.

Much of the prejudice against French opera goes back to Wagner. Much as I admire his works, he did a lot of damage to the reputation of Meyerbeer, the most popular and critically acclaimed opera composer in Europe, and by extension to French opera as a whole. His views on Meyerbeer ("effects without causes") have influenced musical orthodoxy, while some people still believe Meyerbeer plotted to make _Tannhäuser _fail in Paris. (This is untrue.) There's still a lot of prejudice against Meyerbeer, and some opera houses in the US refuse(d) to produce his works (https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/fwopera/conversations/messages/26). Regie productions of _Robert le Diable_ (London 2012) and _Le Prophète_ (Vienna 1998) haven't helped the cause. There is hope, however; last year's production of _Vasco da Gama_ (the 'proper' _Africaine_ - it's the difference between _Les Troyens_ and _La Prise de Troie_) in Berlin was favourably received. The direction was condemned, but the music praised. Halévy - whom Wagner greatly admired, as did Mahler and Berlioz - is also often tarred with the "grand opera = bad opera" brush.

*Audiences have changed.* Opera - and theatre as a whole - isn't the mainstream entertainment it was in the 19th century, or even as late as the 1950s. Opera audiences are more 'highbrow', so more inclined to Weill and Janáček. Directors believe that audiences are too sophisticated to take opera seriously, so feel the need to send it up, critique it or adapt it to their particular worldview (rather than drawing out the themes in the work). You can see this in programmes that say what the opera is _about_ (five abstract nouns and a political commentary), rather than what _happens_.

*Difficulties staging the opera.* French opera (according to legend) needs to be a Cecil B. De Mille blockbuster, and the stage should look like the Babylon sequence from D.W. Griffith's _Intolerance_. While Paris productions had lavish spectacle, grand opéra was staged throughout Europe and in the provinces, often in theatres without the resources of the French opera stage, and sometimes without sets. They succeeded because the music and drama were great. While spectacle is desirable, it's not essential. Staging it 'straight' is - but this is true of most operas.

*Difficulties singing the opera.* The legend goes that grand opéra needs the best singers in the world - Meyerbeer's _Huguenots_, an ensemble work, became the 'Night of the Seven Stars'. In the 19th century, Meyerbeer's operas were sung throughout the world, and were as ubiquitous as Mozart's. The French singing style largely disappeared in the international age; many international singers use an Italian singing style, which doesn't suit French opera. (Compare the Thill _Werther_ to the Carreras recording or the recent production from London.) There are non-French singers who can sing French opera idiomatically, many from America - Thomas Hampson, Renée Fleming, Michael Spyres and Bryan Hymel.

*Second, why can't you recall the tunes of the big arias?*

This depends on the opera! There are many great melodists - Meyerbeer, Bizet, Gounod, Boieldieu, Delibes and Auber, for instance. And the brilliant Offenbach!

French opera _is _different from Italian. It emphasises instrumentation and harmony more than the Italians, and has a declamatory tradition based on Gluck. In many French operas, the distinction between a formal number and recit is blurred; the recit is almost a half-aria, with tunes and orchestral and harmonic interest. This becomes more pronounced in the late 19th century, under the influence of Wagner. (E.g. Reyer's _Salammbô_ or Saint-Saëns's _Henry VIII_.)


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Simon thank you for a comprehensive and typically well argued post. 


I think we'll just have to wait for the right singers to come along to rediscover the glories of French music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Belowpar said:


> Simon thank you for a comprehensive and typically well argued post.
> 
> I think we'll just have to wait for the right singers to come along to rediscover the glories of French music.


Don't forget the directors, before we know it it's being done in this time and day.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Thank you for sharing this article! Your survey of his operas was illuminating and informative.

I am also only familiar with a few Massenet operas, and have actually never seen any of them live. This should change in the coming February/March as different small local companies are doing _Don Quichotte_ and _Werther_!


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