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.
"Manon is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. 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.ĭespite all the warnings, Puccini proceeded. 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. The love theme comes from the aria Mentia l'avviso (1883). Other elements of Manon Lescaut come from his compositions for strings: the quartet Crisantemi (January 1890), three Menuets (probably 1884) and a Scherzo (1883?). For example, the madrigal Sulla vetta tu del monte from act 2 echoes the Agnus Dei from his 1880 Messa a quattro voci. Puccini took some musical elements in Manon Lescaut from earlier works he had written. 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. So confused was the authorship of the libretto that no one was credited on the title page of the original score. The publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and the composer himself also contributed to the libretto.
Puccini nevertheless continued to work on the score, making small and large changes, at least until the representation organized at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1923, the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.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 work, which can be considered to be Puccini’s first masterpiece, after some time, began to tour Italy, Europe and South America. The premiere was greeted with enthusiasm: a public triumph with great appreciation from the critics. During the course of preparation Puccini decided to completely eliminate the original Act II, the so-called “small house act”, which told the idyll of love between Manon and Des Grieux after escaping from Amiens. Giulio Ricordi also contributed to defining the dramaturgy. The librettist team was then joined by Ruggero Leoncavallo and finally Luigi Illica. The composition was delayed by constant requests for changes in the libretto, so much so that Praga abandoned the enterprise. But Casa Ricordi, in July, 1889, entrusted the task of writing the libretto to Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva. It was Ferdinando Fontana, the librettist of the first two works, who suggested that Puccini should write an opera on this subject. First performance: Turin, Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893. Opera in four acts to a libretto by an anonymous author (those actually collaborating were Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Luigi Illica and Giulio Ricordi) from the novel “ Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut” by Abbé Antoine-François Prévost.
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