 In the early 1880s he began to compose music for the stage, eventually achieving his greatest successes with opera in Monte Carlo from the late 1890s through the outbreak of World War I.His most popular opera, "Messaline" (1899), enjoyed frequent revivals throughout Europe and in the United States during the first quarter of the 20th century.He returned to London and spent much of the 1920s trying to create a permanent National opera company in England without much success.