The most successful opera composer of his generation in France, Massenet wrote music that has sometimes inspired cynicism and hostility through its particularly sensuous beauty. In its marriage of technical facility with graceful melody, Massenet’s music exercised a strong influence over Massenet’s successors and is perceptible in the work of Debussy, Ravel and Puccini. Two of the suites on this recording are drawn from operas which brought the composer popular success, while the others is a work dating from early in his career.