Le jongleur de Notre-Dame is a three-act opera (labelled in the programme as Miracle in Three Acts) by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Maurice Léna. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Monte Carlo on 18 February 1902. It is one of five operas Massenet set in the Middle Ages, the others being Le Cid (1885), Esclarmonde (1889), Grisélidis (1901), and Panurge (1913). Background At this stage of his career, the concierge of Massenet's Paris home would normally sort out speculative libretti submitted to the composer, but the concierge being absent Massenet unexpectedly received the package from Léna and read it through on the train to his country home in Egreville. It is based on the story of the same name by Anatole France in his 1892 collection L'Étui de nacre, which was in turn based on a 13th-century medieval legend by the monk and troubadour Gautier de Coincy, c. 1220. Massenet had previously used France as a source for his 1894 opera Thaïs. In Le Jongleur, uniquely for this composer, there are no roles of substance for women: the angels are off-stage and the virgin is mute. The work was composed in the spring of 1901, it became the first of his operas to receive its premiere at the Opéra in Monte-Carlo run by Raoul Gunsbourg. In a centenary survey of the operatic output of Massenet, Rodney Milnes noted that "Le Jongleur is written off by too many because of its sentiment", despite the humorous characterization of the rival monks; the work also has Brother Boniface's 'Légende de la Sauge' which recounts how the sage herb safe-guarded the infant Jesus from the soldiers during the Flight to Egypt. The work alternates morality and comedy, devotion and character portrait, and through different tones and colours avoids mawkishness and melodrama. Massenet inscribed the words "Heureux les simples, car ils verront Dieu" at the top of the manuscript score; Milnes noted that "simplicity was the guiding light without which this sentimental 'miracle in three acts' could have been a little sticky. As it is, it is profoundly moving, though of course one should not take the simplicity at face value - Massenet's infallible sense of theatrical effect lies behind every bar". Despite its setting and cast list, a researcher has commented on the difficulty in pinning down real quotes from liturgical music in the score, although "parts of