Jules-Émile-Frédéric Massenet
born: Montaud, France, 12 May 1842
died: Paris, 13 August 1912
Operas
The dates and locations are those of the premieres; when there was a
substantial delay between composition and performance, the (estimated)
year of completion is also given. Revisions are listed separately.
- Les deux boursiers
(one act)
(comp. c. 1859; never performed) (lost)
- Esmerelda
(sketched 1865, never produced) (lost, inc.)
- Noureddin
(sketched 1865, never produced) (inc.)
- Valéria
(sketched 1865, never produced) (inc.)
- La Grand' Tante (one act)
(3.4.1867 Opéra-Comique, Paris) (only P-V score survives)
- La Coupe du roi de Thulé
(comp. 1867, never produced) (lost)
- Le Florentin
(comp. 1868, never produced) (lost?)
- Manfred
(inc., c. 1869)
- Méduse
(comp. 1869-70, never produced) (lost)
- Don César de Bazan
(30.11.1872 Opéra-Comique, Paris) (only P-V score survives)
- Les templiers [inc.]
(2 acts composed in 1873; never performed) (lost)
- L'adorable Bel'-Boul'
(17.4.1874 Cercle de l'Union Artistique, Paris) (lost)
- Bérangère et Anatole
(Feb. 1876, Cercle de l'Union Artistique, Paris) (lost)
- Le roi de Lahore (27.4.1877 Opéra, Paris )
- Robert de France (1880) (lost)
- Hérodiade (19.12.1881 Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels)
- Les Girondins (1881) (???) (lost)
- Hérodiade [rev.] (1884)
- Manon (19.1.1884 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Le Cid (30.11.1885, Paris Opéra)
- Don César de Bazan [rev.] (20.1.1888, Geneva)
- Esclarmonde (15.5.1889 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Le Mage (16.3.1891, Paris Opéra)
- Werther (16.2.1892, Geneva)
- Kassya [completion and orchestration of Delibes' opera] (24.3.1893 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Manon [rev.] (1893)
- Thaïs (16.3.1894, Paris Opéra)
- Le Portrait de Manon [sequel to Manon] (8.5.1894 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- La Navarraise (20.6.1894 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Sapho (8.5.1897 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Cendrillon (24.5.1899 Opéra-Comique, Paris)
- Grisélidis (20.11.1901, Paris Opéra)
- Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (18.2.1902, Monte Carlo)
- Marie-Magdalene [rev. of oratorio] (9.2.1903 Opéra de Nice)
- Chérubin (14.2.1905, Monte Carlo)
- Ariane (28.10.1906, Paris Opéra)
- Thérèse (7.2.1907, Monte Carlo)
- Bacchus (5.5.1909, Paris Opéra)
- Thaïs [rev.] (1898)
- Don Quichotte (19.2.1910, Monte Carlo)
- Roma (17.2.1912, Monte Carlo)
- Panurge (25.4.1913 Théâtre-Lyrique de la Gaîté, Paris)
- Cléopâtre (23.2.1914, Monte Carlo)
- Amadis (1.4.1922, Monte Carlo)
Oratorios:
About Jules Massenet:
Massenet was one of the best-respected French composers of his day, a
member of the Academy and a professor of composition at the Conservatoire.
In addition to his own music, he had a monumental impact on his
contemporaries in France and, through his teaching, the generation that
followed him. I have included his oratorios in this list because of their
broad dramatic construction; in fact, at least one of them
(Marie-Magdalene) was restaged as an opera during Massenet's
lifetime.
References:
-
Irvine, Demar:
Massenet: A Chronicle of his Life and Times
Amadeus Press, 1994
contributed by Chris Hapka
23 Sep 2005