Massenet: Thérèse

The composer Jules Massenet constantly renewed his style. Towards the end of his life he turned to experimental forms of expression that are astonishing even today. Combining a marked taste for the late eighteenth century (already found in Manon and Werther) with a very modern use of naturalism, Thérèse shows both immediacy in its dramatic discourse and lyricism in its emotional expression, thus greatly deepening the strength and poignancy of the subject.