As a young child, Masse moved from Lorient to Paris where he was able to enter the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve. He won the second prize in solfege, piano, harmony and fugue eventually receiving the Prix de Rome after studying with Halevy (1844). Masse's compositions included comic operas, operas, masses, cantatas, and numerous songs and romances. The latter works were representative of Masse's best talent. Some of his more renowned operas included "Les noces de Jeannette," "La chanteuse voilee," and "Galathee." Generally speaking Masse was more suited to the composition of smaller and less ambitious works than his operas demonstrated. For the most part the operas were an over-extension of his compositional worth with the noted exceptions. ~ Keith Johnson
