Jules (Émile Frédéric) Massenet (May 12, 1842 – August 13, 1912)
was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
However, his style fell out of favor not long after his death; and,
except Manon, his works were rarely performed. Since the mid-1970s, many of his
operas have seen periodic revivals.
Massenet was born in Montaud, then an outlying hamlet and now a part of the city of
Saint-Étienne, in the Loire. When he was eleven his family moved to Paris so that
he could study at the Conservatoire there. To support himself at that time he
worked as timpanist for six years at the opera house.
In 1862 he won the Grand Prix de Rome and spent three years in Rome. His first
opera was a one-act production at the Opéra-Comique in 1867, but it was his
dramatic oratorio Marie-Magdeleine that won him the praise of the likes of
Tchaikovsky and Gounod.
Massenet took a break from his composing to serve as a soldier in the
Franco-Prussian War, but returned to his art following the end of the conflict in
1871. From 1878 he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory where his
pupils included Gustave Charpentier, Reynaldo Hahn and Charles Koechlin. His
greatest successes were Manon in 1884, Werther in 1892, and Thaïs in 1894. Notable
later operas were Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, produced in 1902, and Don Quichotte,
produced in Monte Carlo 1910, with the legendary Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin in
the title-role.
In addition to his operas, he also composed concert suites, ballet music, oratorios
and cantatas and about two hundred songs. Some of his non-vocal output has achieved
widespread popularity, and is commonly performed: for example the Méditation
religieuse from Thaïs, which is a violin solo with orchestra, as well as the
Aragonaise, from his opera Le Cid and Élégie for solo piano. The latter two pieces
are commonly played by piano students.
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Jules
Massenet - Projector - Biography
