The World's Most Famous Operas

"Manon"

Music: Jules Massenet (1842–1912)

Arabized by: Samir Shikhani

An opera in five acts, adapted from the story "Manon Lescaut" by Father Marcel Prévost.

First produced in Paris in 1884.

The Characters:

• Lescaut, a member of the Royal Guard • Manon Lescaut, his kinswoman • The Chevalier des Grieux • The Count des Grieux, his father • De Brétigny, a nobleman • Guillot de Morfontaine, a minister of France

An innkeeper, actresses, porters, a servant, townsfolk, travelers, vendors, gamblers, a sergeant in the army.

Time: the year 1721

Place: the city of Amiens; Paris; on the road to the port of Le Havre.

Act One

The scene: the courtyard of an inn in the city of Amiens.

A great crowd of people has gathered in the courtyard of the inn, awaiting the traveling coach, whose arrival is now imminent. At one side of the courtyard stands a private pavilion where refreshments are served, and from within, from time to time, come peals of boisterous merriment from two noblemen — one middle-aged, the other young — taking their meal in the company of three elegantly dressed women.

The middle-aged man is a member of the government named Guillot; the young one is of the aristocratic class, named De Brétigny. Among the crowd stands an officer resplendent in the bright-colored uniform

of the Royal Guard. It is Lescaut, come to meet his cousin Manon.

The coach draws up and Manon alights — a beautiful girl, good-hearted but flighty, leaving her home for the first time, on her way to the convent. Lescaut had never seen his kinswoman before, and he was delighted to find her a naive beauty. He goes off to look for her luggage, and in the meantime Guillot comes out of the private pavilion.

Since every pretty girl is in his eyes lawful prey, he begins flirting with Manon straightway. His companions, making merry inside the pavilion, call him back to them; before answering the call he tells Manon that he has ordered a carriage brought round, and invites her to accompany him. At that moment Lescaut returns, and Guillot withdraws in confusion. Lescaut warns Manon against Guillot, asking her to cut off every tie with him, for he is a man of fallen morals and cunning. Then he leaves her once more, on the pretext of