Director
Gian Carlo Menotti

Cast
Des Grieux : Placido Domingo
Manon : Renata Scotto
Lescaut : Pablo Elvira

Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
James Levine (conductor)

Manon Lescaut - another melodramatic tale of doomed love with some magnificent trademark tear-jerking Puccini melodies - dates from the early 1890s, when Puccini was living utterly destitute in Milan. His last opera Edgar had failed, and in his efforts to make Manon Lescaut a success - and different from Massenet's recent Manon - he exhausted the efforts of six librettists. Puccini's opera was eventually premiered in 1893 in Turin, and - despite the composer's fears of another failure - it was an immediate hit, being performed within the year in St Petersburg, Madrid, Hamburg, Buenos Aires and Rio. Puccini's reputation was established - he went on to triumph with Madam Butterfly, Tosca and later Turandot, of course - and the opera has stayed in the repertoire ever since.

This performance comes from 1980, when Placido Domingo was in matchless form for the role of Des Grieux. He is youthful and lean, magnificently strong, and in outstanding voice. His acting is especially effective, whether he is enraged, or is sobbing after Manon's tragic death. Renata Scotto, in the title role, is in fine voice too. Vintage Puccini to revel in.