"Manon Lescaut" by Giacomo Puccini at the Gran Teatre del Liceu

Manon Lescaut, an opera in four acts premiered in 1893 at the Teatro Reggio in Turin, is based on the work L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et Manon Lescaut (1731), by Abbé Prévost, which was also the inspiration for the opera Manon, by Jules Massenet. "Manon is a heroine I believe in and, therefore, she cannot fail to win the audience's heart. Why can't there be two operas about Manon? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover," wrote Puccini himself to his publisher.
 
Manon Lescaut was his third opera and represented his first major success. It gave him lasting fame and marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, with whom he would write three masterpieces: La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904). 

When Manon meets the young student Des Grieux, they fall in love and run away together, but when the old Geronte offers Manon a life of wealth and luxury, she pauses and chooses this life of pleasure. Unwilling to forget Des Grieux, they try to flee together, but before they can escape, Geronte has Manon arrested. They escape once more, unknowingly heading for hell. Manon collapses from exhaustion and dies in Des Grieux's arms while telling him she loves him. All efforts have been in vain. 
 
The sumptuous and richly colored score is characterized by youthful vitality and is full of glorious melodies: from the passionate duet of Des Grieux and Manon "Vedete? io son fedele" to the overwhelming desolation of Manon's final aria "Sola, perduta, abbandonata," passing through "Donna non vidi mai" from Act I or "In quelle trine morbine" from Act II. 
 
The staging by Àlex Ollé originated at the Frankfurt Opera. In the opening introduction, some videos explain to us that Manon and her brother Lescaut are crossing a border fence and enter as illegal immigrants. The harassment she suffers because of her beauty and physical appeal will lead to abuse and exploitation. With the urban costumes of Lluc Castells and the stage design by Alfons Flores, Ollé has these love-and-doubt-filled characters move through a bus station, a pole dance club where Manon is the star, or claustrophobic cells as a prelude to deportation. The constant presence of giant letters spelling LOVE is a reminder of this unpredictable passionate love as the opera's guiding thread. 
 
Asmik Grigorian, one of today's best sopranos, will star, offering a great vocal and interpretative performance. Innocent and vulnerable, the Manon that Ollé shapes for Grigorian expresses with intensity, together with American tenor Joshua Guerrero, both frivolity and steadfast passion. A true highlight of the season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. 

Dramma lirico in four acts. 

Libretto by Domenico Oliva and Luigi Illica with contributions from Marco Praga, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Giacomo Puccini, Giulio Ricordi and Giuseppe Adami, based on the work L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Menon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost. 

• World premiere: 01/02/1893 at the Teatro Regio in Turin 
• Barcelona premiere: 05/04/1896 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu  
• Last performance at the Liceu: 22/06/2018  
• Total performances at the Liceu: 72