The Abbé and the best seller from 1731
Abbé Prévost (only sometimes an Abbé) lived an amazingly varied life from 1697 to 1763. In many ways it is pictured in his novella “L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et Manon Lescaut” (The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut). That short novel was to become his best known work and is apparently the most published French work to this day. It’s also a deal more complicated than any of the operas it inspired – for a start because it is a book about des Grieux, and his social location, not simply about the tragedy of Manon, but also because it’s a novel about class and morality. Leonard Tancock, in his introduction to the Penguin edition of his translation, highlights the way this small novel places social class, money and social distance at the centre of the shocking story. “Prévost’s project seems to have been to pass off a social realism of the most brutal kind by virtue of an immaculate style.” Germaine Greer's take on the central theme: “Des Grieux's inability to detach himself from Manon is evidence of his nobility of character, which Prévost intends us to see as superior to nobility of birth, wealth or social status, though connected to all three. Such sensibility is not to be found among the commercial or working or even the ruling classes, but only among the leisured rural gentry. The 'quality' alone can provide a higher ideal than the coarseness and amorality of absolutism which invariably subdues passion in the interests of politics. The magnates with whom des Grieux comes in contact are unfeeling, as exclusively concerned for their own pleasure and amusement as Manon is. Des Grieux is an intruder in their world of amoral hedonism who overwhelms Manon with the kind of transcendental passion she can neither resist nor return.”
Massenet does Manon in the Belle Époque
Fast forward to La Belle Époque– the period from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. “It was a period characterized by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, an apex of colonial empires, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations. In the climate of the period, especially in Paris, France, the arts flourished.”
In this context, Jules Massenet, (1842 –1912) produced the first successful opera from “L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux”, and it was his first great success. It was very French, very Romantic, had a French libretto (actually two French librettists) and was first performed in 1884. (Ten years later Massenet produced a one-act sequel, Le portrait de Manon in which des Grieux is an older man.) He went on to produce thirty operas: (we’ll be visiting Werther, Thais and Don Quichotte.) But Manon remained his most popular, in the words of Wiki, “the quintessential example of the charm and vitality of the music and culture of the Parisian Belle Époque.”
Here's a wonderful summary of the opera with descriptions of the central arias, and recordings from the great singers who have revelled in Massenet's music.
Massenet’s Manon (1884)
The complexity and subtlety – and fame – of Prévost’s short novel made it a must for Massenet. Already famous for his symphonic orchestrations – he was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire – he leapt at the chance to put the novel into an opera with his librettist Henri Meilhac. Well known for his operatic characterisation of women, he had here an opportunity to explore the flighty and self-destructive character of Manon as she changed from a poor girl attracted by luxury yet in love with the decidedly poor Chevalier des Grieux, to a woman living in the lap of luxury determined to rekindle her old flame, which destroyed them both.
Massenet set the opera in 18th century France – a time of great extremes of wealth and poverty in a decaying society (as we saw in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier). Manon too has a strong verismo flavour about it. It presents characters brutally and lets their weaknesses drive the plot development in an unsentimental manner that shows no compassion for anyone. We see tragedy in Manon’s last moments to be sure, but the inevitability of it has a strong message of “Well what do you expect after all you’ve done?” Manon’s conflicted personality can be seen as a microcosm of the times. She identifies with the upper crust – of which she is decidedly not a member. Her pervasive thoughtlessness mirrors the uncaring ignorance of the aristocracy – no action has a consequence that matters. The result is that she is used by all she meets, mainly as a sex object or trophy. It’s hard to see anyone in the story, even des Grieux, as other than selfish , let alone respecting others as moral beings. However there is a bit of remorse at the end.
Our Production
Filmed in 2006, the much-praised production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle is staged at the Vienna Staatsoper and conducted by Adam Fischer. Edita Gruberova (sop.) as Manon gives an outstanding musical performance and brilliant acting. The Suddeutsche Zeitung said “… she spoilt her audience with her irresistible high notes and crystalline coloratura. No less captivating was the studied casualness with which she played the coquette and deployed her seductive charms.” But all the main characters are well sung and played, with Francisco Araizo (ten.) as des Grieux, and Lescaut her cousin (bar.) by Hans Helm. Watch Araiza and Gruberova in the Act 1 duet here.
Listen in
The key dramatic scene is in Act 111, scene 2, in the chapel of Saint Sulpice. Deserted by Manon (for money) des Grieux has returned to his clerical calling. Des Grieux has one of the most famous tenor arias “Ah! Fuyez, douce image” (flee sweet vision).
Here’s a comparison – click on the names for the video:
the young Placido Domingo
But she seeks him out and wins him back, of course.
Here’s the scene with Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna
Anna Netrebko again, with Piotr Beczala (Met Opera)
