Festspielhouse Baden Baden Presents:
Puccini: MANON LESCAUT
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra & Sir Simon Rattle
- Sat., 12. April 2014, 18:00 o’clock
- Wed., 16. April 2014, 18:00 o’clock
- Mon., 21. April 2014, 18:00 o’clock
A rococo beauty who ultimately drags everything into the abyss, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut is never fully satisfied. She becomes addicted to the admiring glances she receives from others, and the luxury and diamonds in which she bathes don’t warm her for long. In this, his first successful opera, the composer paints a portrait of a woman who has everything, only to lose it because she is incapable of holding on to anything. Likewise Puccini, who identified closely with his heroine, helping himself to many things. He took the orchestra from Verdi, expanding it with phrases and themes he found in Wagner and the French people. To all of this he added something from within himself – a melody more breathless than that of Verdi, but in many ways, sweeter. Add to that an ingenious fire in which ideas flow and the themes are inspired. The fact that the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra turn to Puccini – this beloved yet ostracized composer – is symbolic. Here is someone who was thought to be outmoded for a long time, but there is really so much more to be discovered about him and his work. The tale of one who becomes a model but remains a girl, is very contemporary.
Sir Simon Rattle Musical direction
Richard Eyre Direction
Robert Howell Stage
Fotini Dimou Costume Design
Peter Mumford Light Design
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Philharmonia Choir Vienna
Eva-Maria Westbroek Manon Lescaut
Lester Lynch Lescaut, her brother
Massimo Giordano Renato Des Grieux
Liang Li Geronte de Ravoir
Bogdan Mihai Edmondo
Magdalena Kožená Singer
Giacomo Puccini
Manon Lescaut – Opera in four acts
A coproduction between the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Metropolitan Opera New York.