The operas of Jules Massenet are not as admired today as they once were in the last 20 years of the 19th century, when works such as Manon, Werther, Sapho and many others made the industrious French composer a wealthy and famous man. He has been much abused by history for his willingness to cater to the mass taste of his day and making no absolutely bones about it. “I don’t … [Read more...]