Short Summary
When Manon arrives in Amiens, she meets Des Grieux and immediately falls madly in love with him. Despite fleeing to Paris to start a life together, Manon's desire for luxury and wealth becomes her undoing.
She leaves Des Grieux for the rich Geronte, but soon regrets her decision and flees with Des Grieux again. However, their love is put to the test when Manon is arrested and deported to America. Des Grieux follows her, but their story ends in tragedy when Manon dies in his arms in the wilderness.
Manon Lescaut
Storyline
Lescaut's prophecies have come true: Manon has left Des Grieux to lead a life of wealth alongside Geronte.
However, she tells Lescaut, her brother, that Des Grieux's new-found wealth is not worth it. Geronte flaunts Manon to some of his friends. Manon is surprised by Des Grieux. He reproaches her greatly for having left him.
When she begs for forgiveness, he falls under her spell again. However, the passionate lovers are barely reunited when Geronte returns unexpectedly. Manon ridicules Geronte, who then leaves, swearing revenge.
Des Grieux urges Manon to flee immediately, but she is unable to part with the luxury of her new life. Lescaut appears and warns them that Geronte intends to have Manon imprisoned. In her desperate attempt to take as many jewels, clothes and money as possible with her on her escape, she hesitates too long: Geronte appears and has her imprisoned.
Puccini succeeded in linking the disparate individual scenes with musical motifs, almost creating a great arc. Musically, therefore, the opera is a success. There is not a single bar that is uninspired. Even this relatively young composer, who was still Puccini at the time Manon Lescaut was written, possessed great mastery and an unmistakable style. His music is "sexy", full of eroticism and passions and deliberately creates strong contrasts between deeply felt emotionality and superficial glamor.
The opera Manon Lescaut draws our attention to the contrast between money and love. Money can buy many things, which is why it is so fascinating for many people. With love, however, you are thrown back on yourself, love cannot be bought. Manon is indescribably beautiful. But she doesn't have enough self-esteem, so she believes she needs all the luxury, the expensive clothes and shoes, the jewelry and perfume to be valuable in the eyes of those around her. Genuine love, however, does not ask for such external things, it is the exact opposite. It doesn't ask what I want, but what the person I love wants. Manon, however, is so preoccupied with herself that she forgets Des Grieux. Of course, such behavior is all too human. One rarely encounters truly selfless love.
