Description

Le Mage is one of the least known of Massenet’s operas. The fate of this work, forgotten by opera houses and hitherto unrecorded, is all the more curious since, despite generally adverse criticism from the press following its première at the Paris Opéra – Palais Garnier – on 16 March 1891, the work was a public success, and went on to have a run of over thirty performances, until it was suddenly taken off in October of that year. Revived in The Hague in 1896, the opera nevertheless faded into oblivion.

From the CD-Book Le Mage de Massenet (Palazzetto Bru Zane, collection Opéra français, 2013). Translation: Mary Pardoe.