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Virginia Zeani sings Massenet’s seductive heroine Thais, who here asks Venus to say she will be eternally beautiful. The opera tells the story of a monk, Athanael, who persuades Thais to give up her immoral life and become a nun. But despite his honourable intentions he finds himself consumed by passion for her and seeks her out at her convent only to find that she is near to death. To his great distress, she dies in his arms.
