Name: Manon
Start: 2020-02-29T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2020-04-10T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Opéra Bastille

Admin

Organization

Singer

Soprano

Pretty Yende

Manon Lescaut

Amina Edris

Tenor

Benjamin Bernheim

Chevalier des Grieux

Stephen Costello

Baritone

Ludovic Tézier

Lescaut

Bass

Roberto Tagliavini

Count des Grieux

Rodolphe Briand

Guillot de Morfontaine

Pierre Doyen

Monsieur de Brétigny

Cassandre Berthon

Poussette

Mezzo-soprano

Alix Le Saux

Javotte

Jeanne Ireland

Rosette

Philippe Rouillon

The Innkeeper

Julien Joguet

Guard I

Laurent Laberdesque

Conductor

Dan Ettinger

Stage director

Vincent Huguet

Set designer

Aurélie Maestre

Costume designer

Clémence Pernoud

Lighting designer

Bertrand Couderc

Choreographer

Jean-François Kessler

Chorus master

José Luis Basso

Dramaturge

Louis Geisler

Opéra National de Paris

Manon

Paris

France

Opéra Bastille

Manon is like any person who, strolling down the street one day, glances up at a second-story window and catches a glimpse of a different life,” explains Vincent Huguet about his staging of Massenet’s Manon, “a life that she suddenly desires ardently … and will do anything to have.” In his update of Prévost’s famous novel, Huguet demonstrates, with empathy and acuity, that Manon’s tale could really be anyone’s.

Next to the two other well-known adaptations of Manon Lescaut for the opera stage (Auber’s in 1856 and Puccini’s in 1893), it is Massenet’s that hews most closely to the novel. All the essential elements of the story are there: the bright-eyed youth of the protagonists, Manon’s uncertainty as to what she truly desires, and des Grieux’s innocence that will harden and shatter in the face of tragedy. Sensational young superstars Benjamin Bernheim (des Grieux) and Pretty Yende (Manon) are accompanied by the Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus, under the capable baton of Dan Ettinger.

Approved

Production booklet

Further reading