A wonderful letter from Massenet to his biographer, Louis Schneider (1861-1934), written three years after Schneider published his acclaimed biography.

Massenet starts the letter with you are visibly good, exquisite, unique! and goes on to assure Schneider that he did indeed respond to a recent letter but you are so nomadic!. He has lots of work and writes that Panurge is the only work which [alludes?] me after two years. He will go to rest in the mountains.

In a postscript, Massenet melancholically notes that whereas Panurge is still boiling, his opera Roma has been finished for several years as well as Amadis, dated 1890…21 years ago!. The elderly, famous composer is obviously upset that these two operas have not yet been performed. In fact, Roma did not have its premiere until February 1912, shortly before his death, and Panurge was posthumously premiered in April 1922.