Puccini: Manon Lescaut

Soloists:Bel Rtpo&C

Regular: £11.49

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Cat No: 8554705

Release Date: 06 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943470527

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PUCCINI

Description
Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924): Manon Lescaut (Highlights)Giacomo Puccini'sfirst great success came in 1893 with his operatic version of the AbbePrevost's novel Manon Lescaut, a work that established him as a possiblesuccessor to Verdi. There had been disagreements over the libretto, which inthe end involved a number of writers, whose names did not appear on thepublished text.The Abbe Prevost, Antoine-Fran?ºois Prevost d'Exiles, was born in 1697and was by turns a Jesuit novice, a soldier, a Benedictine monk and a convertto Protestantism. He was forced to seek exile from his native France in 1728and lived until 1734 in England and Holland, undergoing a period ofimprisonment in the former country for alleged forgery .He was allowed toreturn to France as a Benedictine monk and was briefly in the service of thePrince de Conti as chaplain until compelled to escape abroad again when he wasaccused of writing various satirical pamphlets. He returned to France in 1742and continued until his death in 1763 as a writer, leading a life complicatedby mistresses and by debt. His works included translations of Richardson'snovels Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe and the seven volumes of Memoireset aventures d'un homme de qualite, written during his early exile. In theseventh volume the gentleman of quality of the title receives the confidencesof the Chevalier des Grieux, a weak-willed hero who resembles in many ways theauthor. This classical novel is in its elevation of sensibility and in thestrength of the passions depicted a precursor of Romanticism. It served as theinspiration of earlier operas by Auber and by Massenet, the second of whosework was first staged in Paris in 1884, bearing the simple title Manon.Puccini's version of Manon Lescaut was first mounted at theTeatro Regio in Turin on 1st February 1893, the year and month of the firstproduction of Verdi's Falstaff in Milan. The opera proved an immediatesuccess. It was staged at Covent Garden and at the Grand Opera House ofPhiladelphia the following year. There were subsequent revisions and temporarychanges, with alterations in orchestration suggested by Toscanini forperformances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, these last incorporated inthe later published score. The libretto itself, effective enough, in spite ofits multiple authorship, offers certain problems, not least in the omission ofthe original second act suggested by Praga and Oliva and set in the Parisapartment of Des Grieux, although what has happened in the interval between thepresent first and second acts is quickly apparent.SynopsisThe opera is set in the second half of the eighteenth century. Outsidean inn near the Paris Gate in Amiens townspeople, young and old, take theevening air. Following a short introduction, [1] the girls are eyed by a groupof students, [2] among them the Chevalier des Grieux, who is persuaded by hisfriends to pretend to flirt with them. A coach approaches, halting in front ofthe inn. Lescaut and the elderly Geronte are
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