MANON LESCAUT " Manon Lescaut " is a lyric drama in four acts with music by Giacomo Puccini, the libretto being the work of the composer and a committee of friends, with an English version by Mowbray Marras after the familiar work of the same name by Abbe Prevost. It was first presented in Turin in 1893.
Marton Lescaut.
Lescaut, her brother, a sergeant of the king's guards. The Chevalier Des Grieux.
Geronte de Ravoir, Treasurer-General.
Edmondo, a student.
The Innkeeper.
A singer.
The Dancing-Master.
A lamplighter.
Sergeant of the Royal Archers.
A captain in the navy.
The Hair-Dresser.
Singers, old beaus and abbes, girls, citizens, villagers, students, people, courtezans, archers, sailors.
The opera opens at Amiens, in the later half of the Eighteenth Century, in the square where the post-chaises depart for Paris. Here frolic the gayest of throngs, students being a conspicuous element. Among the students are Edmondo and Des Grieux, the latter a youth of good family, who, when chaffed by his companions, declares gaily that he knows nothing of the dismal farce called love. While all the young fellows take time from their drinking and card playing to flirt with the girls who stroll by upon the avenue, a diligence draws up at the inn from which alights a young girl, Manon Lescaut, accompanied by her brother and Geronte, an elderly state official. During the time the luggage is being disposed of, the girl sits down before the inn and is approached by Des Grieux, who is enchanted with her grace and beauty. With much simplicity she tells him her name. She also tells him that on the morrow she is to be consigned forever to a convent. To her admirer's expression of horror that one so well fitted for the joy ousness of the world should endure such a gloomy fate, she makes answer that there is no escape from the dictates of the paternal will. Geronte, too, is fascinated by the lovely Manon and her brother shows some inclination to dispose of her to the highest bidder. While Lescaut, who is a profes sional gambler with, in addition, many other unsavory quali ties, is engaging the students in disastrous play, Geronte, who has planned to elope with Manon, gives orders to the land lord to have a carriage waiting for a man and a maiden who will ride to Paris like the wind. Edmondo overhears these directions and having observed his friend's sudden infatuation, tells him of the girl's peril. Des Grieux speedily resolves to take Geronte's place in the carriage. When
Manon appears, she offers but a half-hearted resistance to her abduction at the hands of the charming youth, and in a trice the two madcaps are on their way to Paris followed by the maledictions of the baffled roué.
The two young lovers pass an idyllic period together in Paris but their funds give out, and when Lescaut tracks them to their abode, Manon with whom the desire for luxury is a veritable passion, falls a victim to the worldly allure ments held out by the rich old libertine Geronte and runs away with him.
At the opening of the second act, we find her installed in Geronte's house. She sits in a splendid salon, sur rounded by servants, hair-dressers, singers and dancing masters. Lescaut is much pleased with this arrangement, for he is not above accepting the ill-earned bounty of his sister. Just as her coiffure is finished, he comes in. He compliments her and tells her that she should thank him for rescuing her from " the modest little cottage very rich in kisses but short in money." But Manon presents many strangely constrasting phases of character and much as the luxury delights her, she finds herself unable to forget Des Grieux and his refined and poetical devotion, which forgives for her sake his exile from home and the withdrawal of his allowance. She is not very much interested in learning the minuet and when Des Grieux, dejected, appears at her apartment, having long sought trace of her, she throws her arms about him in rapture and overwhelms him with endearments. Thus they are surprised by Geronte, who angrily reproaches her for her ingratitude and faithlessness. In reply she laughs at him and bids him look in the mirror and prove to himself his inability to inspire love. Geronte, roused to fury, causes her arrest and has her sentenced to be deported as a " fille de joie." Manon accepts her lot with the fortitude which char acterizes her. She makes one attempt to escape from the harbor at Havre but is recaptured. Before this, Des Grieux has visited her to kiss her hands through the bars. The roll is called, she passes to the ship with the other women of her unhappy class, weeping and cowering under the stares and rude comments of the crowd. The agony of Des Grieux, who is a witness of her humiliation, touches the captain, who allows him to come on board and, as the original tale has it, he becomes a cabin-boy in order to be near her.