Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French: Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet; May 12, 1842 - August 13, 1912) was a French composer and music educator. Best known for his operas, he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently performed are "Manon" (1884) and "Werther" (1892). He also wrote oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, and occasionally some piano pieces, songs, and other music. At the time of his death, Massenet was considered by many critics to be old-fashioned and unadventurous, although two of his most famous operas remain popular in France and abroad. After decades of neglect, his works began to receive a favorable re-evaluation in the mid-twentieth century, and many of them have been performed and recorded. Although critics do not rank him among the few outstanding operatic talents such as Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, his operas are now widely accepted as well-crafted and intelligent products of the Belle Époque.