Manon Lescaut / Giacomo Puccini – Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris

About this event

A rising force of the operatic stage, Puccini once explained how he meant to distinguish his Manon from Jules Massenet’s, both drawn from Abbé Prévost’s novel: the Frenchman had “felt it with powder and minuets,” while he would “feel it in Italian, with desperate passion.” And what pathos indeed in these four acts! What torrents of love and despair in the duets between Manon and Des Grieux! A dramatic genius bursts forth, and the indescribable triumph of Manon Lescaut crowns him the heir to the elder Verdi. The electrifying Ailyn Pérez partners Roberto Alagna, in his first Puccinian Des Grieux in Paris. The production illuminates the harsh reality of a thwarted love destiny, magnified by Puccini’s lyricism.

Cast & creative

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  Manon Lescaut

  Ailyn Pérez
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  The knight René Des Grieux

  Roberto Alagna
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  Lescaut

  Lionel Lhote
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  Geronte de Revoir

  Nicola Ulivieri
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  Stage director

  Oliver Mears
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  Conductor

  Lorenzo Passerini
• C

  Chorusmaster

  Christophe Grapperon
• G

  Composer

  Giacomo Puccini
• L

  Librettist

  Luigi Illica
• G

  Librettist

  Giuseppe Giacosa
• D

  Librettist

  Domenico Oliva
• M

  Librettist

  Marco Praga