Hérodiade (Massenet)

Overview

Hérodiade is an opera by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont (Georges Hartmann), freely drawn from Flaubert's story Hérodias (1877). It was first given at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, on 19 December 1881. In Paris it was heard first in Italian, in a revised version with an Italian text by Angelo Zanardini, at the Théâtre-Italien on 1 February 1884, in a season run by the baritone Victor Maurel. The cast reported includes Fidès Devriès (Salomé), Jean de Reszke (Jean) and Maurel (Hérode). The work was not given in Paris in French until 1903 (Wikipedia, "Hérodiade"; the 1884 Paris cast and the Zanardini text per the same article and the IMSLP catalogue entry).

Marie and this work

Marie hears the Italian Hérodiade a few weeks after its Paris opening, in the last year of her life.

• 2-3 February 1884. She writes from her bed after returning from the Italiens with "la maréchale" and Claire (103.0254), first impressed ("Massenet est un Wagner mélodique français", 103.0273), then divided: she dislikes the "stupide invention de faire de Saint Jean l'amoureux de Salomé" (103.0282).
• 4 February. She asks pardon for having overrated it: the poem is poor, and the opera resembles Verdi's Aida, but weaker; Salomé lamenting with chorus in the wings is "une pâle copie" of Amneris (103.0291-0293). Massenet's orchestration is full and broad but "dépourvu de passion".
• 12 February. Sings Hérodiade from memory at the organ, left-handed, with a finger in arnica, and finds the melodies "très connus": Massenet "a pillé deux mesures par-ci, une phrase par-là" (103.0320).
• 1 March. "Ce soir opéra italien, Hérodiade" (103.0447), a second hearing.

This is one of her longest discussions of an opera, and the clearest record of her ranking of Verdi above Massenet and Wagner.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Hérodiade".
• IMSLP, Hérodiade (Massenet, Jules)).