ABSTRACT
Born in Brittany, Victor Masse (1822-1884) was one whose success seemed assured following a brilliant record as a student at the Paris Conservatoire which he entered at the age of twelve and from which he graduated with first prizes in accompaniment, piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue, gaining the coveted Prix de Rome in 1844. Naturally, Masse sought (and found) early success as an opera composer, mostly in the genre of opera comique of which Les noces de Jeannette (1850) and Galatee (1852) were the most popular of his twenty-three stage works, not all of which, however, were performed. Reyer's first published song appeared even before his arrival in Paris; Romance-bolero was a setting of words by Alexander Dumas (the son), and was dedicated to the singer Mlle Sabatier. Exactly contemporary with Reyer was Edouard Lalo (1823-1892). Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was a naturally endowed musician whose gifts were nurtured from an early age by his mother.
