Hérodiade
Music by Jules Massenet · libretto by Paul Milliet · premiered 1881 · at Royal Theatre of La Monnaie
Hérodiade is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont, based on the novella Hérodias (1877) by Gustave Flaubert. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels on 19 December 1881. The libretto is a retelling of the story of John the Baptist, Salome, Herod Antipas and Herodias, but is strikingly less psychological and bloody than Richard Strauss's Salome, which is based on a text by Oscar Wilde. The opera premiered in Brussels because Auguste Vaucorbeil, Manager of the Paris Opera house refused to stage the work; "I do like your music," he had said to Massenet, "but as for the libretto, you badly need an author who knows how to build the skeleton of a play." Massenet also created a ballet suite derived from the opera.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Hérodiade", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French pronunciation: [ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ]; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Jules Massenet", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Jules Massenet
- Cendrillon (1697)
- Don César de Bazan (1844)
- Esclarmonde (1889)
- Grisélidis (1891)
- Chérubin (1905)
- Ariane (1906)
- Bacchus (1909)
- Don Quichotte (1910)