Manon Lescaut
«EROTICISM, DELIRIUM AND ATONEMENT»
Closing the season is Puccini’s drama Manon Lescaut, a must-watch. Full of contrasts, between luxury and poverty, desire and guilt, freedom and loss, Manon Lescaut is a vibrant and captivating opera, where each scene beats with Puccini’s unmistakable force.
ABAO has gathered a cast led by the American tenor Michael Fabiano, in the leading role. With him, the remarkable soprano Joyce El-Koury, as Manon Lescaut. The leading quartet is completed with the baritone Manel Esteve, who plays Lescaut and Bruno de Simone as Geronte.
The music will be handled by the conductor Carlo Montanaro, conducting the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa (Principal Orchestra) to make the most of an intense and emotional score, with highly effective scenes, such as the famous «Sola, perduta, abbandonata».
On stage, the premiere of an ABAO Bilbao Opera and Opera de Oviedo Foundation coproduction, devised by Emiliano Suárez, which sets the opera in an imagery inspired by the 1920s American mafia aesthetic, in the height of the era of organized crime, prohibition and speakeasies. Verism in a noir style, where Puccini’s emotional intensity is filtered through the code of film noir, dark comic and films such The Penguin, Casino, Cabaret, The Great Gatsby, Batman or Babylon.
Act I
It is evening. In the square in Amiens the city’s students are paying court to the girls who are strolling in search of company. Among the students Edmondo and his friend Des Grieux stand out: the latter is attracted by Manon Lescaut, a very beautiful girl who is getting off the stagecoach with her brother, a Sergeant in the King’s Guards, and Geronte di Ravoir, an old and very rich Treasurer General.
Des Grieux approaches Manon for a moment and learns that the next day the young girl will be taken, to fulfil her father’s wishes, to a convent and, overcome by her beauty, he promises to oppose such a plan. However, old Geronte is also in love with Manon and has planned to kidnap her that same evening. Learning of this plan from Edmondo, and taking advantage of Lescaut’s lack of attention while at the gaming table, Des Grieux convinces Manon to run away with him in the carriage ordered by Geronte himself. The old Treasurer flies into a rage but Lescaut consoles him: he knows his sister very well and she will soon abandon the student, preferring comforts and riches to a life of hardships and sacrifices.
Act II
Having abandoned the young and penniless Des Grieux, Manon is living in Paris with Geronte, surrounded by every kind of wealth. Nevertheless, luxury and amusements do not satisfy her; she has not forgotten the student’s passionate love and asks her brother if he has any news of him. Lescaut tells her that he has persuaded Des Grieux to try his luck at gambling: with his winnings, he will be able to come back and live with her. After spending the morning, as usual, listening to madrigals, receiving music and dancing lessons, surrounded by admiring guests and fawned upon by old Geronte, Manon suddenly sees Des Grieux appear. The young man rebukes his lover for her betrayal, but he is soon won over by her charm: their embrace is interrupted by the arrival of Geronte, who goes out in a rage and does not hesitate to denounce Manon. Lescaut urges her to flee, but Manon lingers to gather some objects of value and jewels to take with her. The guards arrive and, before Geronte’s delighted eyes, they arrest the young girl.
Act III
Manon, who has been found guilty, is taken to the port of Le Havre, where she will have to await her deportation. Thanks to a guard bribed by Lescaut, Des Grieux tells his loved one the escape plan organised by her brother; however, the attempt does not succeed and Manon, together with the other deportees, heads towards the ship that will take her to America. After fruitlessly opposing his beloved’s departure, Des Grieux begs the Captain to let him embark with her. The Captain, moved to compassion, takes him on as a cabin boy.
Act IV
Manon and Des Grieux have escaped from New Orleans and are wandering in a vast and deserted plain. Exhausted and thirsty, Manon cannot go on. While Des Grieux goes off in search of help, the young girl painfully recalls her own past. Immediately afterwards she dies in the arms of her lover.
Luis Gago
He is an editor and music critic for El País and co-director of the Chamber Music Festival of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. He usually prepares the subtitles in Spanish for the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera and the Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.