The other story has to do with casting the production. His first thought was of Mme. Miolan-Carvalho, the wife of his impresario and a fine artist. (She was the original Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust.) However in 1884 she was fifty-six, too old to undertake the role of a fifteen-year-old girl. The gallant Massenet, intent on getting her into the picture somehow, dedicated the score to her.
Next he thought of a young soprano named Vaillant, to whom he showed parts of the score. Unfortunately, when the time came, she was appearing in an operetta, and her manager would not release her. But even while he was talking to the manager in the lobby of the theater, a familiar figure kept passing by, newly arrayed in a gorgeous hat (a gray one, with lots of roses on it).
“Heilbronn!” I cried (so go the memoirs).
“Herself.”
“You still sing?” I asked her.
“No, I am rich; and yet, shall I admit it to you? I miss the theatre. It haunts me. Ah, if I found a good part—!”
“I have one: Manon.”
“Manon Lescaut?”
“No, just Manon. That tells the entire story.”
“Can I hear the music?”
“Whenever you like.”
That very night Massenet played and sang the score for her, finishing at half-past four in the morning. At its close the widely experienced but still youthful soprano was moved to very real tears. “It is my life,” she said. “But it is my life—that!”
That is how Marie Heilbronn happened to be engaged to create the role. Her performance, like the opera itself, was an enormous success, but the soprano died after appearing in it some eighty times. Massenet was deeply grieved. “I preferred,” he wrote, “to stop the performance rather than to see Manon sung by another.”
The stoppage at the Opéra Comique was of considerable duration, for the theater burned down shortly afterward and did not revive Manon till ten years later. Meanwhile, it became a hit pretty much all over the world, and when the Opéra Comique did finally get back to it, it did so with a will. It has now had some two thousand performances at that theater alone and is still a staple of the repertoire.
ACT I
The first act takes place in a busy inn-yard in Amiens, France. A rich old fellow named Guillot and his younger companion, De Brétigny, are having themselves a fine time with three young women who are, clearly, no better than they should be. Among the crowd there is also a swaggering soldier named Lescaut, awaiting his teen-age cousin, Manon. The coach arrives, amid a great deal of bustle, and out steps pretty Manon. She is on her way to a convent, and Lescaut, who is seeing her for the first time in his life, is delighted with her sweet appearance and her pretty confusion, for she is making her first trip out into the world. While Lescaut sees to Manon’s luggage, old Guillot tries to flirt with her. Though she laughs at him, he offers her the use of his private carriage. Lescaut interrupts this interview and tells Manon that she must guard the honor of the Lescaut family. As Lescaut goes off to gamble with some military buddies, she is left alone and sings a little aria (Voyons, Manon, plus de chimères) telling us how much she would prefer learning more of the world to being immured in a convent.
Now, enter the hero—the handsome young Chevalier des Grieux. He sees Manon; she sees him; and they fall in love with a precipitancy that one finds only in the first acts of operas. At any rate, their love duet leaves no room in your mind as to how they feel about each other. She sees Guillot’s coach, and it is but the work of a minute for both of them to hop in and ride off, on the way to love—and to Paris. The act ends with the general confusion of everyone else when it is discovered that Manon and Des Grieux have eloped.
ACT II
Manon and Des Grieux have now been living for some time in a small apartment in Paris. The second act opens as together they read a letter that the young man has just written to his father, the Count des Grieux. In it he describes the charms of Manon’s personality and character, and he begs for permission to marry her. Before he can mail the letter, two officers force their way in. One is Manon’s blustering cousin, Lescaut, who fiercely demands to know whether Des Grieux intends to marry Manon. To prove his good intentions, the young lover shows Lescaut the letter he has just written his father. But while Lescaut reads, Lescaut’s companion (who is De Brétigny in disguise) takes Manon aside. Apparently he knows her quite well by this time and is more than half in love. He tells her that, on the Count des Grieux’s orders, her young lover is to be kidnaped this very evening. But she should not fear, for she will be taken care of very well—by himself. The scene—with Manon and De Brétigny on one side, and Lescaut and Des Grieux talking about the letter on the other side—results in a remarkable quartet.
When the two officers have left and Des Grieux has gone to mail the letter, Manon sings a sad little farewell to the table (Adieu, notre petite table), which has seen so much of her happy times with Des Grieux. And when the young man returns, he sings to her his dream—a quiet, intense, loving description of how they will live when they are married. Even this show of devotion does not inspire Manon to warn her lover of the plot to kidnap him.
And so, when there is a knock at the door, and Des Grieux is dragged out, her feeble cries of “No! No!” come too late. Thus the little home is broken up.
ACT III
Scene 1 The action now shifts to a busy square in the city of Paris, the Cours la Reine. Old Guillot is busily flirting and so is Lescaut as he sings a sentimental ditty (Ma Rosalinde). De Brétigny makes fun of Guillot, warning him not to try to steal Manon from him—which is exactly what the old fool resolves to do. Manon arrives on the scene and charms everyone with the famous Gavotte from Manon.
Soon the Count des Grieux enters, and Manon discovers from him that her former lover, the young Des Grieux, has entered the seminary of St. Sulpice, resolved to devote his life to the priesthood. Then Guillot comes back bringing with him the entire ballet company from the Opéra in an attempt to win Manon from De Brétigny. But she has no heart for the entertainment. As the curtain falls, she departs for the church of St. Sulpice—and Des Grieux.
Scene 2 The strains of the organ quietly transport us to a reception room in the church of St. Sulpice. Our hero, now the Abbé des Grieux, has just delivered his first sermon, and everyone is praising him. The old Count des Grieux comes on a visit to his son to try to persuade him to leave the church, marry some respectable young lady, and settle down. But the young abbé resolutely refuses, for he has resolved to forget Manon in the religious life, and the worldly old Count leaves his son with an ironical farewell. Des Grieux, however, finds it extremely difficult to forget Manon. He sings of this difficulty in the aria Ah! fuyez, douce image, in which he bids the memory of the beloved girl to leave him in peace.
Now a religious service begins. Manon slips into the room and, as off-stage sound the noble strains of a Magnificat, she prays earnestly for pardon and for reunion with Des Grieux. The second part of this prayer, at least, is successful. For when Des Grieux sees Manon, he at first tries to resist her. Her charms, her pleadings, and the memory of their past love are, finally, too much for his resolution. As the act closes, the two young people flee from the church.
ACT IV
In a luxurious—and notorious—Paris gambling hall known as the Hôtel de Transylvanie, the guests include Lescaut (who is winning for a change), old Guillot, and his three charmers. Manon brings in her idealistic lover, Des Grieux, who is rather unhappy over being in such a disreputable resort. But she urges him to try his luck, and he does so, accepting the challenge of Guillot. Beginner’s luck is with Des Grieux, and he keeps winning large sums, much to Manon’s delight. The old rascal thereupon accuses Des Grieux of cheating, and there is almost a fight. Guillot, however, departs, muttering a threat and soon returns with police officers. He points out Des Grieux and Manon as the guilty ones, and they are at once placed under arrest. At the crucial moment Count des Grieux enters, and a general ensemble follows, in which the son begs for mercy for
himself and for his beloved Manon. The father tells his son that he will arrange to have him freed later. But Manon, who knows the fate of women such as herself when they get into trouble, murmurs: “Ah! c’en est fait! je meurs.” It is the end for her—and she is ready to die.
ACT V
Manon has been sentenced to deportation to Louisiana, and Des Grieux, together with Lescaut, is waiting on the road to Le Havre to try to free her from the guards who are to take her to the ship. They overhear the guards singing in the distance. Then two of the soldiers come on, discussing one of their prisoners, who appears to be dying. It is Manon they are talking about. Lescaut manages to bribe these guards, and so Des Grieux and Manon are left discreetly alone to sing their final duet. Let them go together to a new country, says Des Grieux, and live a new and happy life. But Manon, who is half out of her mind with illness and repentance, can think only of the happy days they once had together. As night descends, Des Grieux urges her to flee with him, but it is too late. Slowly she becomes weaker and weaker.
As she is dying, cradled in her lover’s arms, her last words are these: “Et c’est l’histoire de Manon Lescaut!” And that is the story of Manon Lescaut.
MANON LESCAUT
Opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini with
libretto in Italian by Ruggiero Leoncavallo,
Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva, Giuseppe Giacosa,
Giulio Ricordi, and Luigi Illica, based on
Les aventures du Chevalier des Grieux et de
Manon Lescaut, by Abbé Prévost
MANON LESCAUT, a girl of fifteen Soprano
LESCAUT, her brother Baritone
CHEVALIER DES GRIEUX, her lover Tenor
GERONTE DE RAVOIR, her aging suitor Bass
EDMONDO, a student Tenor
A MUSIC MASTER Tenor
A MUSICIAN Mezzo-soprano
A LAMPLIGHTER Tenor
A NAVAL CAPTAIN Bass
A WIGMAKER Mime
A SERGEANT OF ARCHERS Bass
Time: 18th century
Places: Amiens, Paris, Le Havre, Louisiana
First performance at Turin, February 1, 1893
Both Massenet’s Manon and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut are based on the Abbé Antoine François Prévost’s popular little novel Les aventures du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, but Massenet’s work was already an established success when Puccini produced his version. Such considerations never seemed to bother Puccini very much. His friend Leoncavallo, the composer of Pagliacci, had already begun work on a La Bohème when Puccini started his masterpiece on the same subject. Leoncavallo’s Bohème is virtually forgotten, while Puccini’s is one of the most frequently performed of all operas. However, both Manon treatments are still very much alive in the international repertoire (though Auber’s, which preceded both of them, is exclusively a matter of historical record).
But when, in 1890, Puccini decided to undertake a version of Manon, both he and Leoncavallo were poor and virtually unknown. True, Puccini had had two operas produced—Le villi and Edgar—but neither was a real success; and as for Leoncavallo, Pagliacci was two years off. It was Leoncavallo who wrote the first draft of a Manon libretto for Puccini; but it took two more years and five more men to bring it, into final shape. And when the opera was finally performed, Puccini for the first time was acclaimed a great operatic composer. He was thirty-five at the time and was to have, with the exception of La rondine, almost nothing but successes thereafter.
ACT I
The scene is the courtyard of an inn in the French town of Amiens, and it’s a very busy place. Students are all over it—drinking, gambling, flirting with the girls. Two of the students stand out particularly—one is Edmondo, an exceptionally lighthearted fellow, successful with the ladies, and the other is a more serious-minded young man named Des Grieux, who gets teased, in fact, by the others for his earnestness. Soon a coach arrives, and out of it come three important characters. One is a rich old aristocrat named Geronte, another is an army officer named Lescaut, and the third is Lescaut’s pretty sister, Manon, the heroine. Only fifteen, she is on her way to enter a convent. Her brother, a worldly youngster, thinks this is a waste of good looks. So apparently does Geronte, for the old fellow soon plots to abduct her and, in fact, arranges with the innkeeper to have a swift coach brought to the back of the inn for that very purpose.
Meantime, Manon’s beauty has made quite an impression on everyone in the place, especially on Des Grieux, who introduces himself, asks her name and her plans, and demands that she should meet him secretly. In no time at all he is terribly in love and tells us so in a particularly fine aria, Donna non vidi mai.
Now, the lighthearted student, Edmondo, has overheard everything that went on. He tells Des Grieux of Geronte’s arrangement for the coach, and so it happens that when Manon comes out to keep her engagement with Des Grieux, the young fellow whisks her off before Geronte knows what has happened. Lescaut (who has been playing cards instead of guarding his sister) takes it all in stride. He tells Geronte that Des Grieux will never be able to support the pleasure-loving Manon in Paris, and that will be the time to step in and take over. On this very cynical note the first act ends.
ACT II
As Lescaut predicted, Manon does not stay long with Des Grieux. He is too poor, and old Geronte has now got the girl and set her up in luxury, while Des Grieux, under Lescaut’s guidance, has been trying to make money by cheating at cards. When the curtain rises, Manon is in her boudoir, making herself beautiful with the assistance of servants. Her brother visits her and learns that she is bored with this luxury: she yearns for Des Grieux. While they talk, a group of singers performs a madrigal which has been especially composed for her by old Geronte. A little later Geronte comes in with friends and with a dancing master for Manon. While she has a lesson, they all express their admiration, and she sings prettily to the tune of the Minuet.
At last, they all leave, and a distraught Des Grieux comes in. The lovers exchange reproaches—and also vows of eternal love. But at the height of the scene Geronte returns. He is at first ironically polite. But then Manon makes a mistake: she tells him why she prefers Des Grieux, and shows Geronte his wrinkled face in a mirror. Immediately the old roué departs, uttering veiled threats. The lovers are about to fly, when Lescaut, out of breath, runs in to warn them that Geronte has denounced Manon, that she is about to be arrested, and that they must flee at once. But Manon takes too long gathering up her jewels, and before they can make good their escape, Geronte returns with officers of the law. Deportation is the fate in store for her, and, with Des Grieux crying protests, Manon is dragged off to jail.
ACT III
Before the act opens, there is a short but very eloquent orchestral Intermezzo. When the curtain goes up, that busy conniver, Lescaut, is telling Des Grieux that through bribery he has arranged an interview with Manon, and that soon he will have her free. The scene is at the harbor of Le Havre, where the ship waits to deport Manon and other girls like her. Manon appears at her prison window, and there is a brief, passionate love scene. But Lescaut’s plans—as usual—miscarry. He has brought some men to carry Manon off from the guards, but a noise off-stage tells us that they have been routed. Now the Sergeant calls the roll of the girls to be deported, and they come onto the ship, one by one, as the crowd comments on them. Manon is among them, and in desperation Des Grieux appeals to the Captain of the ship to let him come along—as a servant or any other way—so long as he may be with his beloved. The Captain is touched by the aristocratic young fellow and gives his permission. Des Grieux rushes up the gangplank into the arms of his Manon, and the act closes.
ACT IV
Puccini’s librettists placed the last act in a rather startling location. They wrote it like this: “Una landa sterminata sui confini del territorio della Nuova Orleans.” In brief—a desert in New Orleans. But if we remember that the story takes place before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and that the territory included, roughly, all the
land between the Mississippi and the Rockies, it is not quite so startling. Anyway—the geography of this act is rough and rugged. Manon and Des Grieux have arrived in America, and they have become lost in some desolate spot. Manon is clearly too ill to go much farther, and she tells Des Grieux so. She urges him to leave her and find help, which he does, and she sings her despairing aria Tutto dunque è finito—“All is now over.”
When Des Grieux returns without help, he finds a dying Manon. Tenderly he takes her into his arms, and tenderly they sing of their love. But Manon only grows weaker, and with a last effort she bids him farewell and dies.
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
(Le nozze di Figaro)
Opera in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart with libretto in Italian by Lorenzo Da
Ponte, based on the French comedy of thevsame name by Pierre Augustin Caron de
Beaumarchais
COUNT ALMAVIVA Baritone
FIGARO, his valet Baritone
COUNTESS ALMAVIVA Soprano
SUSANNA, her maid and Figaro’s-fiancée Soprano
DR. BARTOLO Bass
MARCELLINA, his housekeeper Soprano
CHERUBINO, a page Soprano
100 Great Operas and Their Stories Page 27