|
''Manon Lescaut'' is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel ''L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost and should not be confused with ''Manon'', an 1884 opera by Jules Massenet based on the same novel. The libretto is in Italian, and was cobbled together by five librettists whom Puccini employed: Ruggero Leoncavallo, Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa, Domenico Oliva and Luigi Illica. The publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and the composer himself also contributed to the libretto. So confused was the authorship of the libretto that no one was credited on the title page of the original score. However, it was Illica and Giacosa who completed the libretto and went on to contribute the libretti to Puccini's next three – and most successful – works, ''La Bohème'', ''Tosca'' and ''Madama Butterfly''.〔Colin Kendell, (''The Complete Puccini'' ). Amberley Publishing 2012〕 Puccini took some musical elements in ''Manon Lescaut'' from earlier works he had written. For example, the madrigal ''Sulla vetta tu del monte'' from Act II echoes the ''Agnus Dei'' from his 1880 ''Messa a quattro voci''. Other elements of ''Manon Lescaut'' come from his compositions for strings: the quartet ''Crisantemi'' (January 1890), three ''Menuets'' (probably 1884) and a ''Scherzo'' (1883?). The love theme comes from the aria ''Mentia l'avviso'' (1883). ==Performance history== Puccini's publisher, Ricordi, had been against any project based on Prévost's story because Jules Massenet had already made it into a successful opera, ''Manon'', in 1884. While Puccini and Ricordi may not have known it, the French composer Daniel Auber had also already written an opera on the same subject with the title ''Manon Lescaut'', in 1856. Despite all the warnings, Puccini proceeded. "Manon is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. Why shouldn’t there be two operas about Manon? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover." He added, "Massenet feels it as a Frenchman, with powder and minuets. I shall feel it as an Italian, with a desperate passion." The first performance of ''Manon Lescaut'' took place in the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1893; it was Puccini's third opera and his first great success. The opera was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 18 January 1907 in the presence of the composer with Lina Cavalieri in the title role, Enrico Caruso as Des Grieux, Antonio Scotti as Lescaut, and Arturo Vigna conducting. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Manon Lescaut (Puccini)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|