REFERENCE: MUSIC - Opera – Jules Massenet

I really believe that is possible to make a comparison between Massenet and Puccini.
I do prefer Massenet, he is my favourite opera composer for sure and I have the feeling that Puccini wanted to translate with desperate passion on Italian terms what Massenet felt in a French way.

I really like almost all of his operas but at least three of them are particularly beautiful. Massenet's method of working was to memorize the text of a scene, plant it like a seed in his imagination. Each scene of Thais or Hérodiade for example has their distinctive motif or motifs, evocative both of atmosphere and of emotions.
The general aura of the three operas below is slightly oriental, but specially on Thais, Massenet used his special skills at orchestration, using sometimes very simple means, like a single flute, to evoke a feeling that is not only uniquely his own but also uniquely "Thais".

3 Favourites:

Hérodiade
Opera in four acts
Composer: Jules Massenet
Librettists: Paul Milliet, `Henri Grémont' (Georges Hartmann), and Angelo Zanardini
Source: Hérodias, novella by Gustave Flaubert
First performance: Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, December 19th 1881

Le Roi de Lahore
Opera in five acts
Composer: Jules Massenet
Librettist: Louis Gallet
Source: The Mahabharata
First performance: L'Opéra, Paris, 27 April 1877

Thaïs
Opera in three acts
Composer: Jules Massenet
Librettist: Louis Gallet
Source: Thaïs, novel by Anatole France
First performance: L'Opéra, Paris, 16 March 1894