Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut Giacomo Puccini Manon Lescaut where the harsh reality of a thwarted love affair is magnified by Puccini's lyricism.

Cast Lorenzo Passerini | conductor Oliver Mears | director Ailyn Pérez | Manon Lescaut Roberto Alagna | The Chevalier des Grieux Lionel Lhote | Lescaut Nicola Ulivieri | Géronte de Ravoir Léo Vermot-Desroches | Edmond / The ballet master / A lamplighter Mathilde Ortscheidt | A singer Maurel Endong | The innkeeper / The sergeant Orchestre National de France accentus | conductor Christophe Grapperon In a few words Puccini wrote only ten operas in forty years of career and Manon Lescaut holds a special place in his output because it was the first great success that definitively established his reputation.

For this story, which had already been set to music by Auber and Massenet, he went through seven librettists before being fully satisfied.

The result is a deeply lyrical work, with many unforgettable arias and duets celebrating love, frivolity leading to exile and the death of Manon in a distant Louisiana.

For this work so rarely staged in Paris in recent decades, a dream cast, including the American Ailyn Pérez, vocally and theatrically sumptuous as Manon, and des Grieux by Roberto Alagna, whose Latin temperament and vocal power work wonders in this repertoire.

He makes his grand return on a Parisian opera stage on this occasion and even appears on avenue Montaigne for the first time in a staged production. In the pit, the 'National' regains the baton of Lorenzo Passerini.

Also returning is Oliver Mears (Handel's Semele), who once again explores the twists and turns of desire in our modern world and relations between men and women. New production Co-production Théâtre des Champs-Élysées | Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London | Opéra Nice Côte d'Azur