Manon, Je suis seul!... Ah! fuyez, douce image. Jussi Björling. Jules Massenet

Jules (Émile Frédéric) Massenet (May 12, 1842 -- August 13, 1912) was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very (Émile Frédéric) Massenet (May 12, 1842 -- August 13, 1912) was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, his style fell out of favor not long after his death; and, except Manon, his works were rarely performed. Since the mid-1970s, many of his operas have seen periodic revivals. Massenet was born in Montaud, then an outlying hamlet and now a part of the city of Saint-Étienne, in the Loire. When he was eleven his family moved to Paris so that he could study at the Conservatoire there. To support himself at that time he worked as timpanist for six years at the opera house. In 1862 he won the Grand Prix de Rome and spent three years in Rome. His first opera was a one-act production at the Opéra-Comique in 1867, but it was his dramatic oratorio Marie-Magdeleine