When, in 1731, Abbé Prévost wrote ‘L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut’, Massenet’s inspiration, he portrayed an entire era, that of the Regency, which saw the old order fade away and a new one, full of the promise of unprecedented freedom, rise. Manon (the brilliant Pretty Yende) must make her way between these two worlds, fleeing the convent in order to embrace the paths of desire and transgression, throwing herself headlong into a burning and destructive passion with Des Grieux (Benjamin Bernheim). Director Vincent Huguet’s new production casts the work’s customary taffeta aside in order to bring out its violence to the full.
Manon (Pretty Yende) must make her way between these two worlds, fleeing the convent in order to embrace the paths of desire and transgression, throwing herself headlong into a burning and destructive passion with Des Grieux (Benjamin Bernheim). A parenthesis opens, only to close again in suffering and obscurity.
With this new Paris Opera production, director Vincent Huguet casts the work’s customary taffeta aside in order to bring out its violence to the full.
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Saturday 31st October
250 min
CTC
Palace Opera & Ballet
