Manon
Manon
From the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain
Running time 175 minutes, plus one intermission
Massenet’s passionate and tragic Manon stars three of today’s operatic luminaries: Rolando Villazón as Chevalier Des Grieux, Thomas Hampson as his father, and the incomparable coloratura Natalie Dessay as Manon herself. From the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.
Starring Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson & Manuel Lanza
Conductor Victor Pablo Pérez
Director David McVicar
Sets and costumes Tanya McCallin
Lighting Paule Constable
Choreography Michael Keegan-Dolan
Chorus master José Luis Basso
Libretto: Henri Meilhac & Philippe Gille, after Abbé Prévost. (L’Histoire du
Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut)
Manon Lescaut Natalie Dessay
Le Chevalier Des Gieux Rolando Villazón
Lescaut Manuel Lanza
Le Comte Des Gieux Samuel Ramey
Guillot de Morfontaine Francisco Vas
De Brétigny Didier Henry
Poussette Cristina Obregón
Javotte Marisa Martins
Rossette Anna Tobella
L’hôtelier Lluís Sintes
La servante Claudia Schneider
Les gardes Jordi Mas
Gabriel Diap
Un sergent Leo Paul Chiarot
Un archer Ignasi Campà
Les croupiers Miguel Ángel Currás, Josep Lluís Moreno, Ignasi Gomar
Une vieille dame Carmen Jiménez
Voyageurs Josep Lluís Moreno, Xavier Martínez
Vendeur d’élixir Emili Roses
Voyageuses Mariel Aguilar, Rosa Cristo, Elisabet Vilaplana, Núria Lamas
Une vendeuse María Such
Un vendeur de chansons Ivo Mischev
Un vendeur Josep M. Bosch
Une vendeuse de chapeaux Hortènsia Larrabeiti
Un voyageur, une voix Omar A. Jara
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
Recorded Live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona 24, 27 & 30 June 2007
Production based in the original by
English National Opera in collaboration with the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the
Lyric Opera Chicago
Program Note
Manon (1884) is Massenet’s most popular and famous work and a veritable paradigm of French opera. Based on L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (Amsterdam, 1731), it follows the original more closely than most other operas on the same topic. It tells the tale of two adolescents —an attractive young girl on her way to a convent and a provincial nobleman who has fallen madly in love with her— who elope to Paris. There life’s harsh realities uncover their true characters. Manon is ambitious and yearns for comfort and luxury to the point of betraying her lover and prostituting herself. The weak, ingenuous Des Grieux, on the other hand, falls into a milieu of gambling and violence. In the novel Manon is deported to Louisiana and dies there in the arms of her repentant lover; in the opera this episode is reduced to
Des Grieux’s bid to free her on the quayside at Le Havre, where she expires from exhaustion.
Many different factors turned Manon —a character born of 18th century libertinism— into a flourishing literary and musical myth of the 19th century. One is her passion for Des Grieux, which seems to make up for her more negative facets: impulsiveness, unpredictability, and lack of moral sense; another is her sad fate and tragic death, which cast a hue of Romantic sentimentalism over her life. But Manon is also endowed with the same literary force as a whole series of women, such as Cleopatra, Salome, Carmen and Lulu, who have embodied evil and perdition in the Western imagination.
Massenet skillfully translates the different social groups and variegated atmospheres of Manon into music, depicting each with the appropriate color. The form of the opéra-comique offers him a multiplicity of styles and manners — speech and song, recitative and arioso, Neoclassicism and Romantic expressiveness— which fragment the work and make it unusually attractive. The chief high spots are Manon’s arias —“Je suis encor tout étourdie,” “Adieu notre petite table” and “Je marche sur tous les chemins”— those of Des Grieux —his dream “En fermant les yeux, je vois là-bas,” “Ah fuyez douce image” and “Manon, sphinx étonnant”— and the duets “Nous vivrons à Paris, tous les deux” and the evocative “Manon! Tu pleures!”
Jules Massenet’s Manon has a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. It is an opéra-comique in five acts, divided into six scenes, and was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1884. It triumphed from the very first night and has remained a paradigm of French opera, as was illustrated by the medallion to French opera which could be seen over the Liceu stage prior to the 1994 fire. It was first performed at the Liceu in 1894 and has been staged there 130 times in all.
Running time 175 minutes, plus one intermission
Massenet’s passionate and tragic Manon stars three of today’s operatic luminaries: Rolando Villazón as Chevalier Des Grieux, Thomas Hampson as his father, and the incomparable coloratura Natalie Dessay as Manon herself. From the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.
Starring Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson & Manuel Lanza
Conductor Victor Pablo Pérez
Director David McVicar
Sets and costumes Tanya McCallin
Lighting Paule Constable
Choreography Michael Keegan-Dolan
Chorus master José Luis Basso
Libretto: Henri Meilhac & Philippe Gille, after Abbé Prévost. (L’Histoire du
Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut)
Manon Lescaut Natalie Dessay
Le Chevalier Des Gieux Rolando Villazón
Lescaut Manuel Lanza
Le Comte Des Gieux Samuel Ramey
Guillot de Morfontaine Francisco Vas
De Brétigny Didier Henry
Poussette Cristina Obregón
Javotte Marisa Martins
Rossette Anna Tobella
L’hôtelier Lluís Sintes
La servante Claudia Schneider
Les gardes Jordi Mas
Gabriel Diap
Un sergent Leo Paul Chiarot
Un archer Ignasi Campà
Les croupiers Miguel Ángel Currás, Josep Lluís Moreno, Ignasi Gomar
Une vieille dame Carmen Jiménez
Voyageurs Josep Lluís Moreno, Xavier Martínez
Vendeur d’élixir Emili Roses
Voyageuses Mariel Aguilar, Rosa Cristo, Elisabet Vilaplana, Núria Lamas
Une vendeuse María Such
Un vendeur de chansons Ivo Mischev
Un vendeur Josep M. Bosch
Une vendeuse de chapeaux Hortènsia Larrabeiti
Un voyageur, une voix Omar A. Jara
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
Recorded Live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona 24, 27 & 30 June 2007
Production based in the original by
English National Opera in collaboration with the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the
Lyric Opera Chicago
Program Note
Manon (1884) is Massenet’s most popular and famous work and a veritable paradigm of French opera. Based on L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (Amsterdam, 1731), it follows the original more closely than most other operas on the same topic. It tells the tale of two adolescents —an attractive young girl on her way to a convent and a provincial nobleman who has fallen madly in love with her— who elope to Paris. There life’s harsh realities uncover their true characters. Manon is ambitious and yearns for comfort and luxury to the point of betraying her lover and prostituting herself. The weak, ingenuous Des Grieux, on the other hand, falls into a milieu of gambling and violence. In the novel Manon is deported to Louisiana and dies there in the arms of her repentant lover; in the opera this episode is reduced to
Des Grieux’s bid to free her on the quayside at Le Havre, where she expires from exhaustion.
Many different factors turned Manon —a character born of 18th century libertinism— into a flourishing literary and musical myth of the 19th century. One is her passion for Des Grieux, which seems to make up for her more negative facets: impulsiveness, unpredictability, and lack of moral sense; another is her sad fate and tragic death, which cast a hue of Romantic sentimentalism over her life. But Manon is also endowed with the same literary force as a whole series of women, such as Cleopatra, Salome, Carmen and Lulu, who have embodied evil and perdition in the Western imagination.
Massenet skillfully translates the different social groups and variegated atmospheres of Manon into music, depicting each with the appropriate color. The form of the opéra-comique offers him a multiplicity of styles and manners — speech and song, recitative and arioso, Neoclassicism and Romantic expressiveness— which fragment the work and make it unusually attractive. The chief high spots are Manon’s arias —“Je suis encor tout étourdie,” “Adieu notre petite table” and “Je marche sur tous les chemins”— those of Des Grieux —his dream “En fermant les yeux, je vois là-bas,” “Ah fuyez douce image” and “Manon, sphinx étonnant”— and the duets “Nous vivrons à Paris, tous les deux” and the evocative “Manon! Tu pleures!”
Jules Massenet’s Manon has a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. It is an opéra-comique in five acts, divided into six scenes, and was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1884. It triumphed from the very first night and has remained a paradigm of French opera, as was illustrated by the medallion to French opera which could be seen over the Liceu stage prior to the 1994 fire. It was first performed at the Liceu in 1894 and has been staged there 130 times in all.
Genre
Opera
Runtime
175
Language
French
Played at
Monica Film Center 5.22.11 - 5.26.11
Claremont 5 5.22.11 - 5.26.11
Town Center 5 5.22.11 - 5.26.11
Playhouse 7 5.26.11 - 5.26.11
Manon Get Tickets
There are currently no showtimes for this film. Please check back soon.