Ô souverain, ô juge, ô père (Le Cid)

Massenet completed Le Cid for the Paris Opéra, where it was first staged on 30 November 1885 with Jean and Édouard de Reszke in the cast. The libretto, by Adolphe d'Ennery, Louis Gallet and Édouard Blau, follows Corneille's tragedy of Rodrigue, torn between his love for Chimène and the duty to avenge his father. Massenet met the grand-opera conventions of the house — processions, a ballet of Spanish dances, massed choral tableaux — while keeping the intimate vocal writing that was his own; the prayer before battle remains the score's most exposed moment for the tenor.