Méditation (Thaïs)

Massenet wrote Thaïs for the American soprano Sibyl Sanderson, who had created Esclarmonde for him five years earlier; Louis Gallet adapted Anatole France's novel about a monk who converts an Alexandrian courtesan and is destroyed by his own desire in the process. The Paris Opéra gave the premiere on 16 March 1894. Massenet revised the work in 1898, adding a scene at the oasis. The Méditation, an orchestral interlude with solo violin that marks the conversion, detached itself from the stage almost immediately and has been played separately ever since, usually by listeners with no idea what it accompanies.