Known primarily for his facile and graceful melodies, Benjamin Godard was quickly forgotten by twentieth-century historians and very little of his music has survived. However, his fourth opera Jocelyn (1888) has maintained considerable popularity because of the favored "Berceuse" for tenor. The solo has been recorded by many vocalists including Count John McCormack in 1914, Lotte Lehmann in 1927, Bing Crosby in 1946, Jussi Björling in 1949, Rita Streich in 1958, and Plácido Domingo in 1990. The four-act opera was inspired by one of Alphonse de Lamartine's poems and its libretto was written by P. Armand Silvestre and V. Capone. Based upon an earthly love which tempts a brother at a seminary, Jocelyn is considered Godard's most popular opera. The work had a highly successful premiere in Brussels the year it was composed on February 25.

During the time that Jocelyn was scored, Godard saw one of the most promising stages of his musical career. In 1885 - 1886 he conducted the Concerts Modernes, then became a professor at the Paris Conservatoire the following year. In 1889, he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and composed four more operas in the early half of the 1890s. Of his operas, Pedro de Zalamea (1884) was first performed at Antwerp, Dante (1890) achieved slightly the same status as Jocelyn, Jeanne d'Arc Op. 25 and Ruy Blas (1891) (which was unperformed) were both considered failures. It was only Godard's congenial "opera comique" La vivandière, that saw considerable success as an entire work. Its orchestration was completed by Paul Vidal after Godard's death and it had over 80 performances before 1900, even remaining popular until World War I. Regardless of its expressive melody, Jocelyn, like all of Godard's operas, lacked the substance and dramatic force which gives works of this genre legendary success.

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