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• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1697–1763, French Prévost has a place in operatic history quite simply because two major nineteenth-century composers made lasting operas out of his work: Massenet’s Manon and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut both derive from Prévost’s most famous novel, L’histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. Its exploration of the tribulations of a passionate woman made ideal material for operatic ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

Manon and Werther have become Massenet’s most frequently performed operas, but several others are gaining ground, among them Hérodiade, Thaïs, Sapho, Cendrillon, Grisélidis, Chérubin and Don Quichotte, all recently revived. Both Manon and Werther – and the other operas as well – are about relationships. The tale of Manon explores a theme that ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

With Manon Lescaut, Puccini took his place at the head of the Italian operatic table. Ricordi worked hard to persuade Puccini of the dangers inherent in setting a story that had already received successful treatment by Massenet, but the young composer was not to be swayed. Puccini’s determination proved well-founded, for the opera received an ecstatic reception after ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Ja’-ko’mo Poot-che’-ne) 1858–1924 Italian composer Puccini wrote 12 operas, three of which rank among the most popular in the world: La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The composer came from a long line of musicians. His great-great-grandfather, the first Giacomo Puccini (1712–81), was organist and choirmaster at the cathedral of S Martino in the Tuscan town of Lucca. His ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1842–1912, French The son of a businessman, Jules Massenet had a musical mother and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11. He had a prolific career with varying degrees of success, but above all he became reputed for his orientalist excursions, his brilliant musical projection of the female character, and the ability ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Modern Era

Nineteenth-century music had developed with an unprecedented awareness of its own history, and by 1900 the European musical legacy seemed as permanent and unshakeable as the institutions – the opera houses, concert halls and conservatories – that nurtured it. Above all, classical tonality and its associated forms and genres, now the everyday stuff of textbooks, had ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1889–1936, Italian The daughter of a stage director and a chorus member, soprano Muzio debuted in Arezzo in 1910 before making a number of appearances in Turin. She appeared at La Scala, Milan in 1913 and then Covent Garden in 1914. It is often said of Muzio that she had very little private life, choosing instead to ...