"Dare to come, you who defy Venus!" cries Thaïs, the priestess of Venus, to ascetic monk Athanaël, determined to save her soul by converting her to Christianity. This challenge precipitates the action ...

Even among a group of classical music experts, you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who could instantly tell you the plot of French composer Jules Massenet’s relatively unknown opera Thaïs. Instead, ...

Symphony Sundays aims to share some of the greatest recent performances given by our indoor ensembles. Our first post features the Purdue Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Professor Adam Bodony, ...

Poor Jules Massenet. How could the most successful French opera composer of his generation fall so far out of fashion? Perhaps the new 23-CD box set of Massenet's music, marking the 100th anniversary ...

Athanaël lives in the desert in a monastic brotherhood with other ascetics and they have forsaken all worldly goods and desires. But this is not enough for Athanaël: he is ambitious and wants to ...