Mention must be made, for the sake of completeness, of the performance at Nice in 1903 of Massenet’s thirty—­year—­old oratorio, ’Marie Magdeleine,’ in the guise of a ‘drame lyrique.’  French taste, it need hardly be said, is very different from English with regard to what should and should not be placed upon the stage, but once granted the permissibility of making Jesus Christ the protagonist of an opera, there is comparatively little in ‘Marie Magdeleine’ to offend religious susceptibilities.  The work is divided into four scenes:  a palm-girt well outside the city of Magdala, the house of Mary and Martha, Golgotha, and the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, where occurs what a noted French critic in writing about the first performance described as ’l’apparition tres reussie de Jesus.’

In ‘Cherubin’ (1905) Massenet returned to his more familiar manner.  The story pursues the adventures of Beaumarchais’s too fascinating page after his disappearance from the scene of ‘Le Mariage de Figaro.’  What these adventures are it is needless to detail, save that they embrace a good deal of duelling and even more love-making.  Massenet’s music is as light as a feather.  It ripples along in the daintiest fashion, sparkling with wit and gaiety, and if it leaves no very definite impression of originality, its craftsmanship is perfection itself.  ‘Ariane’ (1906) is a far more serious affair.  It is a return to the grander manner of ‘Herodiade’ and ‘Le Cid,’ and proves conclusively that the musician’s hand has not lost its cunning.  Catulle Mendes’s libretto is a clever embroidery of the world-old tale of Ariadne and Theseus, the figure of the gentle Ariadne being happily contrasted with that of the fiery and passionate Phaedra, who succeeds her sister in the affections of the fickle Theseus.  The death of Phaedra, who is crushed by a statue of Adonis which she had insulted, is followed by a curious and striking scene in Hades, whither Ariadne descends in order to bring her sister back to the world of life.  The opera, according to tradition, ends with the flight of Theseus and Phaedra, while the deserted Ariadne finds death in the arms of the sirens, who tempt her to seek eternal rest in the depths of the sea.  Massenet’s music is conspicuous for anything rather than novelty of invention or treatment, but though he is content to tread well-worn paths, he does so with all his old grace and distinction of manner, and many of the scenes in ‘Ariane’ are treated with an uncommon degree of spirit and energy.

Massenet’s latest work, ‘Therese’ (1907), is a return to the breathless, palpitating style of ‘La Navarraise.’  It is a story of the revolution, high-strung and emotional.  Therese is the wife of the Girondin Thorel, who has bought the castle of Clerval, in the hope of eventually restoring it to its former owner, Armand de Clerval.  Armand returns in disguise, on his way to join the Royalists in Vendee.  He and Therese were boy-and-girl lovers in old days, and their old passion revives.