Name: Manon Lescaut
Start: 2008-08-01T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2008-08-01T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Opernhaus Chemnitz

Organization

Stage director

Ansgar Weigner

Conductor

Frank Beermann

Set designer

Dieter Richter

Costume designer

Renate Schmitzer

Dramaturge

Carla Neppl

Singer

Soprano

Astrid Weber

Manon Lescaut

Baritone

Heiko Trinsinger

Lescaut

Tenor

Zurab Zurabishvili

The knight René Des Grieux

Bass

Kouta Räsänen

Geronte de Revoir

Edward Randall

Edmond

Martin Gäbler

Matthias Winter

The naval captain

Jürgen Mutze

The dance master

Theater Chemnitz

Others

Chor der Oper Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Germany

Opernhaus Chemnitz

Ansgar Weigner presents a remarkable production of Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini, the first opera composed by the Italian maestro.

Premiered in 1889 at the Teatro Regio (Turin, Italy), Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts and Giacomo Puccini's first success. The plot was written after L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut ("The Story of the knight Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut") by the Abbé Prévost, a French author of the 18th century. Two other operas drew their inspiration from the same novel: Manon by Jules Massenet and Manon Lescaut by Daniel Auber (more recently, Kenneth MacMillan made a ballet of Manon's story: L'Histoire de Manon).

Manon Lescaut's plot is a tragic love story between Manon and her lover Des Grieux, of whom the hope to live together is always thwarted by a lack of money, the wickedness of a rival, a deportation to the United States. Once arrived in the virgin lands of Louisiana, Manon and Des Grieux are in a state of utter exhaustion and suffer from malnutrition. After a vain attempt to find water to quench their thirst, Manon dies in the arms of her lover Des Grieux ("Fra le tue braccia, amore").

Astrid Weber (Manon Lescaut) and Zurab Zurabishvili (Des Grieux) embody with majesty this unfortunate couple, together until their last breath.

Public

Approved

Production booklet

Further reading