91. Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (Jules Massenet)

Massenet, ‘le musicien de la femme et de l’amour’, as Schneider called him, composed an opera without either — except, the composer said, the most sublime of all women: the Virgin.

74. Kassya (Léo Delibes, Jules Massenet)

Here is an opera to warm the heart! Class war in Eastern Europe; a proletariat hero; a peasants' revolution; the nobility banished; the violent death of a woman seduced by luxury; and happiness in a humble cottage - all inspired by the inventor of masochism.

43. La Navarraise (Jules Massenet)

La Navarraise is like a super-concentrated essence of opera; it lasts barely 40 minutes, but runs the gamut of emotions, has a great role for a soprano, and ends on a devastating curtain.