Massenet the eclectic

Much admired in her day, she was soon out of fashion, scorned, prudishly accused of sentimentality, shyly appreciated with shame, usually limited to listening to her two most famous works, Manon and WertherThe music of Jules Massenet deserves much better than the condescension it has long received, often due to a lack of understanding of the diversity and eclecticism of his output, which explored all the genres and registers of lyric theater, tackling the most varied subjects: grand opera, opéra-comique, fairy tale, lyric drama, miracle, sung comedy, verist episode, among others. As a craftsman with a perfect command of his craft, subtly mastering vocal writing, prosody, dramaturgical effectiveness, orchestration and form, he probed the psychology of the characters, highlighting the female protagonists as independent-minded heroines and revealing the potential fragility of the men, doubly at odds with the phallocratic society of the time. A Massenet specialist, Jean-Christophe Branger has written a landmark monograph for the prestigious collection of biographies that Fayard has been devoting to major composers for almost half a century. Thanks to his extensive research, he has revealed new facets of the author of HerodiasIt also tells the story of his works and how they were perceived, including their posthumous destiny, which saw Messiaen express his delight at such sincere music, and Poulenc proclaim that, like the Eiffel Tower, his "I'm not the only one in the world! Manon was part of the Paris skyline.

Jean-Christophe Branger: Jules Massenet : une vie au service du théâtre, 1080 p., € 49.00, Fayard, Paris 2024, ISBN 9782213704852