Prince Albert I of Monaco, born in 1848, was several years younger than Massenet. He had succeeded Prince Charles III in 1889, ten years after the inauguration of the Opéra of Monte- Carlo, which was designed by Massenet's close friend, the architect Charles Garnier.

A celebrated scientist and great oceanographer, Prince Albert founded the Institut océanographique in Paris in 1906, and four years later in Monaco, the Musée océanographique. The Prince was also an excellent musician and fervent lover of the arts.

Proof of his commitment is found in the list of works that were produced under his leadership in tandem with Raoul Gunsbourg, with whom he collaborated starting in 1892.

Gunsbourg managed the Opéra de Monte-Carlo from 1892 until 1951, a total of fifty-nine years! He left his post only four years before his death, creating a new record for the tenure of an administrator in one opera company. The year of his birth is uncertain; 1859 is the most recent theory. Both a composer and an impresario, he clearly had talent for discovering artists who, for the most part, lived up to his expectations. The greatest singers of the epoch worked in both the theater of their debuts, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and other, more famous, stages.

Between 1900 and 1902, Tamagno, Nellie Melba, Gemma Bellincioni, Rose Caron, and Maurice Renaud were engaged at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Later, there were Caruso and Chaliapin … and so many others.

Prince Albert I lived ten years longer than Massenet; he passed away in Paris in 1922.

Beginning in 1898, Massenet often visited Monaco, where he received preferential treatment when his successful works, such as Le Roi de Lahoreor Hérodiade, were produced. New works, such as Thérèse,were also premiered there and occasionally were revived in several consecutive seasons.

From 1902 until his death, the composer returned annually, often as a privileged guest at the princely palace. In 1903, after the premiere of the staged version of Marie-Magdeleinein Nice, Hérodiadewas produced in the principality—even though the Opéra would wait more than twenty years to perform it.