Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Jules Massenet
Manon (1884)
- Heugel (World)
- 2222/40+2cnt30/tmip.perc/hp.org/str. In the wings: 6 musicians. Optional additions: Air à danser: 1111/2000/timp.perc/hp Menuet: cl.bn/str(1 per desk) Gavotte: 1111/2120/timp.perc/str. Fabliau: 1111/20+cnt20/timp.perc/str.
- SATB
- S, 2 Tenors, 2 Baritones, Bass, var. minor roles
- 3 hr
- English, French, Italian
Programme Note
Auber (1856), Massenet (1884), Puccini (1893) – Of the three operatic adaptations of Abbé Prévost’s masterpiece L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, Jules Massenet’s version remains most faithful to the original. It preserves Manon's ambivalence, torn between her past as a frivolous courtesan and her fate as a tragic heroine, and emphasizes the innocence of the knight, set to endure a sentimental education that will spare him no torment. The composer successfully reconciles neo-classic pastiche and the exaltation of emotion, so characteristic of post-Romanticism, without weakening the unity of the work. Act III is particularly inspired, with dancers frolicking to the rhythm of the gavotte and the minuet before ending with a superb duet in which the heroine’s tireless imploring awakens the passion deep within the knight’s heart, wringing tears from the hardest of spectators. The end of the final act shows us the young woman in chains, ready to die, but transfigured by the tender, selfless love inspired by her beloved's presence, and comforted one last time by the sweet memory of their idyll. Next to Carmen, Manon represents French opera’s most brilliant triumph.