Palazzetto Bru Zane, the house of French romantic music in Venice, opens after a brief summer vacation for a new season dedicated to composer, pianist, and organist Jules Massenet. Six concerts on October 1, 2, 13, 18, 25, and 28 trace his musical production, preceded by a prologue on September 22, 6pm, when mezzo-soprano Éléonore Pancrazi and pianist Ian Barber will perform some of Massenet’s melodies. Who was Jules Massenet? Born in 1842, his family moved to Paris in his childhood and enrolled him in a conservatory in 1851. Due to circumstances, the young Massenet had to use music to support himself in his studies.

He taught piano and played in bars. He won the Prix de Rome when staying there in 1863, and was back in Paris for the performance of his first opera in 1867. In 1873, he published an oratorio, Marie-Madeleine, which earned him the praise of such composers as Tchaikovsky and Gounod, as well as the public. In 1877, Massenet took his Le Roi de Lahore at the Paris Opera, and was given tenure in composition at the Paris Conservatory the year after. The main feature in his operas is a confident theatrical effect – fluid, suggestive, and refined. Massenet does not like repetition, and varied his subjects drawing from fantasy, ancient and medieval history, and the exotic. He died in 1912, leaving a vast repertoire that includes ballet pieces, song, and symphony.