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Opera

III-II Romanza Masque 2016

7.4 / 10 128 Ratings

A perfume by Masque for women and men, released in 2016. The scent is floral-green. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Floral

Green

Animal

Spicy

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Angelica

Artemisia

Orange blossom

Heart Notes

French narcissus absolute

Violet leaf Jasmine

Jasmine

Base Notes

Cedarwood

Myrrh

Patchouli

Vetiver

Amber

Perfumer

Cristiano Canali

Ratings

Scent

7.4128 Ratings

Longevity

8.1104 Ratings

Sillage

7.5105 Ratings

Bottle

8.1106 Ratings

Value for money

6.541 Ratings

Submitted by OPomone · last update on 01/03/2026.

Source-backed & verified

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the Opera collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Bois Lumière

Tabac Tabou

Grey Flannel Eau de Toilette

Camel

Reviews

9 in-depth fragrance descriptions

06/21/2016

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Top Review 5

Spring!

Romanza plays Spring as the season of bittersweetness, with fresh, young stems, flowers and leaves all crushed together. Narcissus perfumes are a rarity yet Romanza bears a resemblance to Parfums de Nicolai le Temps d’une Fete. Both perfumes set narcissus’s green reediness in a woody, resinous setting, albeit with different orchestration. Romanza’s absinthe topnote performs a role similar to le Temps’s chalky galbanum, ushering in a grassy, green-floral range centered on narcissus. In the heartnotes the two perfumes diverge, though both transition from flowers to woods. Imagine Romanza’s basenotes as sitting an octave or two below le Temps.

I have no idea if Masque Milano even knew of le Temps d’une Fete, but if they are taking on de Nicolai, they’re running directly into the fire. Le Temps d’Une Fete is one of Patricia de Nicolai’s strongest works, a Green Floral that has earned a place next to the other heavy hitters of the genre like Guerlain Chamade, Chanel 19 and VeroProfumo Mito. Romanza’s passing similarity in shape to le Temps is less important than the difference in its intent. Le Temps’s fresh-scrubbed freshness is pure sunlight next to Romanza’s midnight narcissus.

Romanza is based on the attraction of opposites. Bitter angelica accentuates narcissus’s sweet vitality and from the very topnotes Romanza is filled with shadow and texture. The amber drydown has a growl that does not go gentle anywhere. Narcissus might be the image of spring, but the scent is the furthest thing from the stereotype of Spring prettiness. It’s mucky, muddy and messy. Romanza doesn’t hide narcissus’s chaotic side. It liberates it, offering a beautifully defiant take on Spring. The romantic fiction of the season is a birds-cooing, hand-in-hand cartoon of courtship. Romanza reminds us that Spring is brief and there’s no time for subtlety. It dispenses with the niceties and reaches a hand down the front of your pants while it looks you dead in the eye.

Masque Milano’s framing of their perfumes as literary, operatic and episodic is well thought out and has led to a sumptuous style of perfumery. The perfumes are detailed and specific and I don’t question the producer’s/perfumer’s process, but plot and narrative aren’t a requirement to enjoy the perfume. Shear the story from Romanza and you’re left with an exceptional perfume with a detailed, calibrated aesthetic. Romanza is a provocative perfume from a young perfumer and I’ll keep my eyes peeled for future work from Christiano Canali.

from scenthurdle.com

11/30/2022

8.5Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Kurai
388 Reviews

Kurai

Helpful Review 6

Narcissusist

Every other perfumer complains about how the disclosure of fragrance notes forms a limitation to their framing of the perfume experience. They would very much prefer to ditch the semi-mandatory note pyramid and replace it with an artsy storyline. Yet, most of those mini stories are so abstract and hollow that they completely miss the mark. Then there is Masque Milano. They manage to realize a context of quality, where each of their perfumes is an episode in a broader work of art. Their inspiration, notes of choice and the intended effect all come together in a readable backstory that actually makes sense. Go check it out on their website. Watch and learn, creative directors of the fragrance world.

Since it is impossible to introduce this perfume better than Masque does, I will get to the point and stick to describing my personal impressions. Romanza appears to me as a fairly mellow narcissus. Mellow in the sense that its development is kind of subtle and low-paced. This is not so much the typical fresh character that announces the early spring, though. There is a certain bite to it, a darker bittersweet side, as notes of angelica, violet and hyacinth stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the narcissus. This magnificent floral accord forms the long long bridge between the green-herbaceous opening and the ambery end phase.

Its animalic facet is mentioned a lot, but it is used in a classical supportive way, not harsh at all. In fact the whole composition feels classical, but not oldish or retro. I would wear this in any casual setting, without being bound to any season in particular.

Updated on 11/30/2022

11/28/2023

10Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

DrB1414
283 Reviews

DrB1414

Helpful Review 4

She's one of many colors

Romanza is such a poetic perfume. Created by Cristiano Canali for Masque Milano. This one made me follow Canali's work closely and he sure is talented. But in my opinion, this is still his best composition thus far. It is the only perfume from the house that really impressed me enough to not only own a bottle but a backup as well.

It's a sultry Victorian floral perfume with a dirty, edgy, resinous base. Bourgeois afternoons, classical music, good wine, and lust in the air. It is a perfume of transitions, from innocence to sin. Quite a dramatical evolution, from the green, spring-like opening and the fleeting burst of absinth, to the rich narcissus-loaded floral bouquet in the heart. And oh, how ravishingly beautiful the narcissus is. Playing on its honeyed, grassy, and indolic facets. Harmonized with the help of a metallic-green violet leaf, an innocent hyacinth, sultry jasmine, and waxy beeswax. The base heats up with resins, cedarwood, and lots of civet, completing the fall into sin, imminent from the very first gaze. It is a brilliant evolution, and one would not believe that something that started as inoffensive could end up so pagan. If you try this perfume in-store and purchase a bottle on the spot, I don't know what to say. You'll either love it for how much more it has to unveil or be simply repulsed but how unashamed it is in truth.

For Narcissus lovers and vintage perfume lovers, romantic-minded ones, and maybe even agrestic lovers, this is one to try. I can draw a parallel to a similar composition, in style, not in smell, the infamous Une Fleur De Cassie.

IG: @memory.of.scents

Updated on 11/28/2023

07/23/2024

9.5Scent 9Longevity 9Sillage

Raluko111
471 Reviews

Raluko111

5

Roofied at a 1730s party in Versailles.

When I wear Romanza I feel like a rouged, bewigged French cocote in a Rococo painting, prancing, giggling, playing hide and seek with my many white wigged lovers in a narcissus filled garden, every once in a while, lifting my giant, lacey hoop skirts to urinate on the flowers trampled by my high heeled satin shoes. Don't tell me there are no animalic notes in this! Romanza is a white flower nuclear explosion, a masterpiece, like I've been roofied with some ketamine or GHB at a 1730's party at Versailles. Thank you to the lovely folks at Masque Milano for the wonderful customer service and for shipping to me in Japan!

Updated on 07/23/2024

07/31/2025

ClaireV
969 Reviews

ClaireV

4

Wild, and I do mean wild, narcissus

Romanza is neither easy to describe nor easy to wear, which is not to say it's not brilliant (it is). It features narcissus, but instead of wrapping it in sunshiney beeswax (Ostara) or sweetening it with rose (Lumiere Noire Pour Femme), Romanza plays up all its ugly, bitter facets, resulting in a fragrance that is a real punch in the gut. Do you want to be challenged, confronted, and swept off your feet? Well, Romanza may be just the ticket.

The chartreuse green opening reminds me not of absinthe but of vermouth in all its adult bitterness. It makes me shiver. I feel flooded with foreboding, like breaking a thermometer on the floor and watching the little balls of mercury scatter into every nook and cranny. The narcissus rides up from under this slick of silvery moonshine, grabs me by the scruff of my neck, and mashes my nose down into a handful of crushed jonquils, paper whites, daffodils - whatever you call them. It's a live, crawling mass of green stems and pollen-dusted stamens. The balance of beauty and decay is just perfect here; the crushed narcissus smells like life itself, but death and corruption are already eating away at the edges.

The wild, ugly side of narcissus, that dark green poison facet, is supported and surrounded by three very important accords. First, a drop of either civet or a very good ambergris-like material (not Ambroxan) adds a warm, salty funk that shifts between halitosis and the natural stink of a clean beach at low tide. Orange blossom adds a honeyed indolic breeze. And when vetiver root introduces a marshy skin note, this foetid mash changes the crystalline nature of the vermouth-and-stems opening to something altogether murkier.

The second important supporting player is a pairing of violet leaf and hyacinth. Violet leaf has an astringent green, metallic character that serves the function of a knife, sharpening the outlines of the narcissus. Hyacinth adds a watery note. The overall effect of the violet leaf and hyacinth tandem is that of crushed flowers, stems, and pollen dust floating in slightly stale vase water. Oddly, the violet leaf develops a mint-like note towards the end, reminding me somewhat of the wild, green-minty forest floor feel I get from Chypre Mousse. Now I imagine Narcissus himself, lured to the lake by the cruel Nemesis, leaning down to kiss his own reflection in the water.

Finally, the most important supporting player is a damp hay and jasmine mix. The hay is probably not a distinct note but rather another facet of narcissus that I am picking up on, as narcissus can sometimes give off aromas of dry hay, jasmine, and hyacinth. The hay note in Romanza smells like hay that has recently been urinated on by horses. This part of Romanza reminds me very much of two other fragrances that are nonetheless completely unrelated to either each other or indeed to Romanza. The first is Sarrasins, where in the dry down I also pick up on a dry, sun-baked hay or chamomile tea aroma. It might be a facet of Sambac jasmine, which is the type of jasmine used in both Sarrasins and Romanza. The second fragrance that this dry hay/jasmine aspect reminds me of is Cuir Pleine Fleur. When I spray Cuir Pleine Fleur heavily on myself - so heavily that it drips down my arms and off my fingertips - this normally polite, pastel-colored leather fragrance takes on a ferociously animalic character, and smells exactly like warm, fresh pissy hay (the rotting flesh facets of hawthorn also adding to the warm, animalic impression).

Romanza is, all in all, a strange, intoxicating, and ultimately somewhat oppressive fragrance. I like that it showcases the duality inherent in cheerful flowers such as the humble daffodil or paper white - they smell bright and beautiful at first, but as soon as you pick them, they've started to die and wilt, their poisonous green plant juice staining your hands and flooding your mouth with metallic bitterness.

Anybody who likes narcissus or "corrupted" florals like Une Fleur de Cassie, Amoureuse, or Amaranthine should give Romanza a try. Narcissus oil has a calming effect on the central nervous system, but is so rich that over-exposure to it can cause fainting and dizziness, or even toxicity. That effect seems very much in keeping with the Victorian theme to the fragrance, with that idea of something that is both alluring and dangerous at the same time.

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