Jules Massenet was a French composer of the Romantic era, celebrated for his operas, which were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born: May 12, 1842, in Montaud, near Saint-Étienne, France
Died: August 13, 1912, in Paris, France
Massenet was the youngest child of a prosperous ironmonger and a talented amateur musician mother who gave him his first piano lessons. His family moved to Paris when he was young, where he later entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 11. He studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired, and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1863 with his cantata “David Rizzio.”
His operatic career began with the production of “La Grand’ Tante” in 1867, and he went on to compose more than thirty operas. The most frequently staged are “Manon” (1884) and “Werther” (1892). Massenet’s music is known for its lyricism, sensuality, and theatrical aptness.
Massenet had a keen sense of theatre and what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France during his time. He also became a professor at the Conservatoire, teaching composition from 1878 until 1896.
Among his students were notable composers like Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn, and Gabriel Pierné. After his death, Massenet’s works were somewhat neglected but have since been reassessed and many of them have been staged and recorded. His operas are now accepted as well-crafted and intelligent products of the Belle Époque12.
Massenet’s legacy includes a wide variety of music, including oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs, and, of course, his operas, which continue to be performed worldwide1. His “Méditation” from “Thaïs” remains part of the standard violin repertoire
Ave Maria On Meditation from Thais is based on the glorious Meditation from Massenet’s opera Thaïs and originally arranged for mezzo-soprano, violin, organ ad lib.…
Ave Maria On Meditation from Thais is based on the glorious Meditation from Massenet’s opera Thaïs and originally arranged for mezzo-soprano, violin, organ ad lib. and piano, Ave Maria has recently been transcribed by David Heyes with the double bass replacing the violin alongside the removal of the organ part.
Thaïs was premiered in 1894 and the arrangement with soprano was published the same year, obviously to boost printed music sales. Meditation for solo violin from Act Two was instantly popular and, never wanting to waste a good tune and with no mention of an arranger, it seems likely that Massenet created the version for mezzo- soprano, violin and piano, alongside an edition for voice and piano.
This new edition includes accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings.
The three-act opera Thaïs was composed in 1890, to a libretto by Louis Gallet, after Anatole France’s novel, and was first produced in Paris on 16 March 1894. It is set in 4th-century Egypt and tells how the monk Athanael converts the courtesan Thaïs, who becomes a nun, but loses her soul in the process. Meditation is played between Scenes 1 and 2 of Act Two.
