X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Jules Massenet


Anne Sharp

At the Royal Opera House, Sharp sang in the chorus in the first post-war production, Purcell's The Fairy Queen, then in the 1947 productions of Bizet's Carmen, Massenet's Manon and Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Denis Pyramus

In the 19th century the original story of Parthénopéus de Blois served as a broad basis for Alfred Blau's libretto Esclarmonde, later turned into an opera by Jules Massenet.


Canadian Grenadier Guards Band

The ensemble played an unusually varied repertoire for a band of its time period, playing both new music and works by major composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Richard Wagner.

Chicago Civic Opera

Mary Garden, the star-power and resident genius of Civic, never happy with the new opera house, retired abruptly after a performance of Massenet's Le jongleur de Notre-Dame at the end of the 1931/2 season.

Cleofonte Campanini

Campanini was known for his association with French opera, and introduced numerous works to the United States; these included Hérodiade, I gioielli della Madonna, Louise, Pelléas et Mélisande, Monna Vanna, Jules Massenet's Sapho, and Thaïs.

Clifford Grant

His Metropolitan Opera debut took place two years later when he created the role of Emperor Phorcas in the Met's premiere of Massenet's Esclarmonde.

Enrico Di Giuseppe

He made his formal debut in the summer of 1959, as the Chevalier des Grieux in Jules Massenet's Manon, with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America (affiliated with the New Orleans Opera Association), conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini.

Francesco Maria Bonini

On 17 October 1903 he portrayed the role of Athanaël in the Italian premiere of Jules Massenet's Thaïs at the Teatro Lirico Internazionale in Milan opposite Lina Cavalieri in the title role.

Françoys Bernier

He also produced several live programs of classical music, including performances of Igor Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat (1955), Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges (1956, 1957), Charles Gounod's Faust (1957), Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (1958), and Jules Massenet's Manon (1960) among others.

Lakmé

Like other French operas of the period, Lakmé captures the ambience of the Orient seen through Western eyes, which was periodically in vogue during the latter part of the nineteenth century and in line with other operatic works such as Bizet's The Pearl Fishers and Massenet's Le roi de Lahore.

Lotte Lehmann

In her 21 years with the company, Lehmann sang more than fifty different roles at the Vienna State Opera, including Marie/Marietta in Die tote Stadt, the title-roles in La Juive by Fromental Halévy, Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, and Manon by Jules Massenet, Charlotte in Werther, Marguerite in Faust, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin.

Marie van Zandt

She was a good friend of Jules Massenet and used to sing for Parisian aristocratic salons, for example at Mme Lemaire's hôtel particulier, where Massenet, Marcel Proust, Countess Greffulhe, Camille Saint-Saëns, Reynaldo Hahn, etc. where frequent guests.

Maurizio Bensaude

His repertoire for the stage included Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Germont in La Traviata, Lescaut in Manon by Massenet, the Escamillo in Carmen, Marcello in Puccini's La Boheme, and Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana.

Opéra de Monte-Carlo

By the early years of the twentieth century, the Salle Garnier was to see such great performers as Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso in La bohème and Rigoletto (in 1902), and Feodor Chaliapin in the premiere of Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte (1910).

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1

Benedetti's debut album released on the Deutsche Grammophon label in April 2005 includes Szymanowski's Concerto No. 1, the Chausson Poème, the Havanaise by Saint-Saëns, and a trio of contemplative miniatures by Massenet, Brahms (arranged by Jascha Heifetz) and John Tavener, the last of which, Fragment for the Virgin, was written for Nicola.


see also

The Juggler of Notre Dame

Le jongleur de Notre-Dame, opera in three acts by French composer Jules Massenet (libretto by Maurice Léna); first performed in 1902