Puccini : Manon Lescaut -Monte Carlo 2022

Cast Guy Montavon — Stage director, lighting designer Hank Irwin Kittel — Stage design Christopher Kempf — Costume designer Anna Netrebko — Manon Lescaut Claudio Sgura — Lescaut Yusif Eyvazov — Des Grieux Alessandro Spina — Geronte di Ravoir Luís Gomes — Edmond Rémy Mathieu — Dance master / Lamplighter Loriana Castellano — Singer Choir of the Monte Carlo Opera — Choir Stefano Visconti — Chorus director Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra — Orchestra Pinchas Steinberg — Conductor Program notes Feast your eyes and ears on this stunning new production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from the Monte-Carlo Opera, with the excellent Pinchas Steinberg leading the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra—and fabulous prima donna Anna Netrebko in the title role! Puccini’s first operatic masterpiece, which restages the novel of the same name by the Abbé Prévost, premiered just a few years after the resounding success of Massenet’s Manon. Enraptured by the idea of adapting the novel and undeterred by the discouraging remarks of some doubters, the composer never gave an inch in defending his decision to proceed: “Massenet feels [the story of Manon] as a Frenchman, with powder and minuets. I shall feel it as an Italian, with a desperate passion.“ And Puccini succeeds brilliantly in creating a work that reveals the scope of his unique lyricism and his exultant musicality, brimming with romance, ardor, and richly beguiling melody.