Jules Massenet: Melody (Elegy) Op. 10, No. 5

A work by French composer Jules Massenet, one of the most famous examples of the musical genre of elegy.

This composition was originally written as a piano piece and included in Massenet's 1866 cycle “Genre Pieces” (Op. 10) as number 5. Then, while working on the music for Leconte de Lisle's drama Les Erinyes (staged a year later) in 1872, Massenet arranged the Elegy for cello; in the production of the play, the elegy was performed in the second act and represented Electra's sad song; In 1876, Massenet published the entire cycle of music for de Lille's drama in an arrangement for a large symphony orchestra. Finally, the famous French librettist and Massenet's regular collaborator Louis Gallé wrote lyrics (Ô, doux printemps d'autrefois) to this melody. This is how the vocal version came about (later, Charles Ives also wrote his own romance to the same words by Gallé). Subsequently, many other arrangements appeared, such as Jacques Boche's arrangement for guitar.

A Russian version of the text was written (apparently by A. Santagano-Gorchakova) at the request of Russian singer Fyodor Shalyapin, but it only vaguely resembles Halle's original. In Russia, and indeed throughout the rest of the world, this work is known primarily thanks to Shalyapin's recording. A contemporary critic, in particular, regards Montserrat Caballé's performance of this work as a competition with Chaliapin:

Connoisseurs of serious music are well acquainted with Massenet's “Elegy” performed by the famous Russian bass. Caballé, however, offered her own interpretation of this work. “Gentle sadness, elegant melancholy, shaded by sound ‘veils’, and to all this — a slight hint of salon style,” is how one Russian art critic comments on Massenet's “Elegy” performed by Montserrat Caballé. “With Chaliapin, everything is different, completely different. No sadness, only passion and expression, not the slightest hint of ‘salon-like’ elegance.” Who is right — the late Fyodor Chaliapin, who brilliantly interpreted Massenet's score, or the still-living Montserrat Caballé, who did not wish to imitate the genius by extracting burning dramatic passions from a salon-lyrical piece? It seems that only a complete amateur could answer this question unequivocally.

At the same time, Massenet's Elegy was also recorded by Enrico Caruso (1913), Marian Anderson, Giuseppe di Stefano, Rosa Ponselle, Alfredo Kraus, Nikolai Gedda, Aris Christofellis, Plácido Domingo, and other performers.