Organization

Stage director

Pier Francesco Maestrini

Conductor

Gabriel Bebeşelea

Set designer

Nicolás Boni

Costume designer

Luca Dall'Alpi

Chorus master

Zsuzsa Budavari-Novak

Singer

Soprano

Sabina Cvilak Damjanovic

Manon Lescaut

Tenor

Max Jota

The knight René Des Grieux

Baritone

Jaki Jurgec

Lescaut

Bogdan Stopar

Edmond

Dušan Topolovec

The dance master

Tomaž Planinc

A lamplighter

Mezzo-soprano

Dada Kladenik

A singer

Lighting designer

Sašo Becafigo

Assistant Director

Tim Ribič

Bass

Sebastijan Čelofiga

Geronte de Revoir

Marko Mandir

An innkeeper

Mihael Roškar

The naval captain

Sergeant of the Archers

Opera and Ballet of Slovene National Theatre Maribor

Orchestra

Maribor Slovenian State Opera Orchestra

Others

Opera Choir of the Slovene National Theater Maribor

Italian

Maribor

Slovenia

Slovene National Theatre

Manon Lescaut Puccini

Public

Slovenian

Approved

An Italian opera in four acts

Libretto Luigi Illica, Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Domenico Oliva, Giulio Ricordi, Giacomo Puccini
First performance of the opera February 1, 1893, Teatro Regio, Turin

Although the undisputed icon of Italian opera of the 19th century was Giuseppe Verdi, who also went down in history as an important factor in the awakening of the Italian national consciousness, the burden of his "crown" soon fell on the forty-five years younger Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), who after his first opera attempts, the world beyond Italy's borders increasingly recognized him as Verdi's symbolic successor, such as Manon Lescaut among the first after the London premierein 1894, for example, the British playwright George Bernard Shaw also found out. Puccini's operatic profile, in contrast to Verdi's, is much less inclined to the treatment of historical themes, and therefore a significant similarity between the two opera giants can be seen in the deeply sympathetic treatment of human destinies, interpersonal relationships and, above all, in the unsurpassed sense of musical drama that drives them human passions.

The core of Puccini's musical theater creativity is - regardless of the wider social or cultural context of the individual opera - love, which can make us happy, fulfill as well as destroy and destroy in equal measure. The ambivalent living aspects of this emotion have been covered in Puccini's opera writing since his operatic debut , Le Villi ( Villas ), and as a leading motif, dressed in always different musical constellations, is repeated all the way to his last opera, Turandot . When Puccini embarked on his third opera "project", Manon Lescaut , he was marked by the negative experience of the failed opera Edgar, which, according to the composer, experienced a negative reaction mainly because of a bad libretto. The bitter traveler did not deter Puccini from creating an opera, but encouraged him to take a more active role in co-creating the libretto. The music publisher Giulio Ricordi also played an important role in the development of Puccini's undeniable talent, who, with the aim of providing a suitable libretto for the new opera, engaged as many as five writers - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, who was soon fired, Domenico Olivo and Marco Prago, who were also soon canceled the collaboration, and Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, who are actually the most responsible for the opera standing the test of time and coming to life on stage in its dramatic fullness.

The protagonist of Puccini's opera novelty Manon Lescaut , who was the composer's first major triumph after the premiere at Turin's Royal Theater on February 1, 1893, was thus one of the composer's first femme fatales. The plot of the story is based on the content of Abbé Prévost's novel L'histoire du Chévalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut ( The Story of the Knight Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut) from 1731. Prévost's novel acquired cult status, which was further strengthened by numerous social changes after the industrial revolution and failed social utopias. The novel still seems to be an important read today, as it touched on many questions of human ethics and, above all, tragedy, which is to be found in the weakness of human character and the absence of "Apollinian" values, embodied by Manon Lescaut as an exploitative courtesan and the emotionally labile nobleman Des Grieux. The merry-go-round of love adventures, greed and criminal acts takes the two opera protagonists into exile across the pond, to the then French protectorate of Louisiana, from where they escape and seek refuge in a British settlement, but perish miserably in the desert from thirst and exhaustion. Puccini's creative energy in creating the musical drama was directly fed by the shocking and psychologically tense story. It seems as if Puccini's expressive arsenal first explodes only in the conflict and tension-filled second act of the opera, which is why some connoisseurs of the operaManon Lescaut is characterized as Puccini's first real discovery of the tragic muse, which could be defined as the despair that arises during the search for love. In addition to the rich and idiomatically recognizable melody, the composer mastered the compositional technique of musical characterization (or iconization) with leading motifs, partly inspired by Wagner), thereby paving the way for his own operatic poetics.

English

Libreto Luigi Illica, Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Domenico Oliva, Giulio Ricordi, Giacomo Puccini
Praizvedba opere 1. februar 1893, Teatro Regio, Torino

Čeprav je bil nesporna ikona italijanske opere 19. stoletja Giuseppe Verdi, ki se je v zgodovino zapisal tudi kot pomemben dejavnik pri prebujanju italijanske narodne zavesti, je breme njegove »krone« kmalu padlo na petinštirideset let mlajšega Giacoma Puccinija (1858–1924), ki ga je po prvih opernih poskusih tudi svet onkraj italijanskih meja vedno bolj prepoznaval kot Verdijevega simbolnega naslednika, kot je med prvimi po londonski premieri Manon Lescaut leta 1894 denimo ugotovil tudi britanski dramatik George Bernard Shaw. Puccinijev operni profil je v nasprotju z Verdijevim sicer veliko manj naklonjen obdelavi zgodovinskih tem(atik), se pa zato med obema opernima velikanoma kaže pomenljiva podobnost v globoko sočutni obravnavi človeških usod, medosebnih razmerij ter predvsem v neprekosljivem čutu za glasbeno dramo, ki jo poganjajo človeške strasti.

Jedro Puccinijeve glasbenogledališke ustvarjalnosti je – ne glede na širši družbeni oziroma kulturni kontekst dogajanja posamezne opere – ljubezen, ki nas lahko v enaki meri osrečuje, izpolnjuje kakor tudi pogubi in uniči. Ambivalentni bivanjski aspekti tega čustva so v Puccinijevi operni pisavi zajeti že od opernega prvenca Le Villi (Vile) in se kot vodilni motiv, sicer odet v vselej drugačne glasbene konstelacije, ponavlja vse do njegove poslednje opere Turandot. Ko se je Puccini lotil svojega tretjega opernega »projekta«, Manon Lescaut, je bil zaznamovan z negativno izkušnjo propadle opere Edgar, ki je po skladateljevem prepričanju doživela negativen odziv predvsem zaradi slabega libreta. Bridka popotnica pa Puccinija ni odvrnila od opernega ustvarjanja, ampak ga je spodbudila k zavzemanju aktivnejše vloge pri soustvarjanju libreta. Pri razvoju Puccinijevega nespornega talenta je imel pomembno vlogo tudi glasbeni založnik Giulio Ricordi, ki je z namenom zagotovitve karseda primernega libreta nove opere angažiral kar pet piscev – Ruggiera Leoncavalla, ki je bil kmalu odpuščen, Domenica Olivo in Marca Prago, ki sta prav tako kmalu odpovedala sodelovanje, ter Giuseppeja Giacoso in Luigija Illico, ki sta dejansko najbolj zaslužna, da je opera prestala preizkus časa in v dramski polnosti zaživela na odru.

Protagonistka Puccinijeve operne novitete Manon Lescaut, ki je bila skladateljev prvi veliki triumf po praizvedbi v torinskem Kraljevem gledališču 1. februarja 1893, je bila tako ena izmed skladateljevih prvih fatalnih žensk. Siže zgodbe se opira na vsebino romana Abbéja Prévosta L’histoire du Chévalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (Zgodba o vitezu Des Grieuxu in Manon Lescaut) iz leta 1731. Prévostov roman je dobil kultni status, ki so ga še dodatno utrjevale številne družbene spremembe po industrijski revoluciji in spodletele družbene utopije. Roman se še danes zdi pomembno čtivo, saj se je dotaknil številnih vprašanj človeške etičnosti in predvsem tragičnosti, ki jo gre iskati v šibkosti človeškega značaja in odsotnosti »apoliničnih« vrednot, ki ju poosebljata Manon Lescaut kot izkoriščevalska kurtizana in čustveno labilni plemič Des Grieux. Vrtiljak ljubezenskih avantur, pohlepa in kriminalnih dejanj ponese oba operna protagonista v izgon čez lužo, v tedanji francoski protektorat Louisiano, od koder prebegneta in poiščeta zatočišče v nekem britanskem naselju, a od žeje in izčrpanosti klavrno propadeta v puščavi. Puccinijeva ustvarjalna energija se je pri snovanju glasbene drame neposredno napajala iz pretresljive in psihološko napete zgodbe. Zdi se, kot da Puccinijev ekspresivni arzenal prvič eksplodira šele v drugem dejanju opere, prežetem s konflikti in napetostjo, prav zato nekateri poznavalci opero Manon Lescaut označujejo kot Puccinijevo prvo resnično odkritje tragične muze, ki bi jo lahko opredelili kot obup, ki se poraja med iskanjem ljubezni. Skladatelj je ob bogati in idiomatično prepoznavni melodiki izmojstril kompozicijsko tehniko glasbene karakterizacije (oziroma ikonizacije) z vodilnimi motivi, pri čemer se je deloma zgledoval pri Wagnerju), s tem pa na stežaj razprl pot lastni operni poetiki.

slovenščina

Manon Lescaut by Puccini, From (2023/2023), Directed by Pier Francesco Maestrini,, Conductor Gabriel Bebeşelea, Slovene National Theatre, Maribor, Slovenia

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