Manon Lescaut (Auber)

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Manon Lescaut is an opera or opéra comique in 3 acts by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber. The libretto is written by Eugène Scribe and is based on Abbé Prévost's story Manon Lescaut.

Auber's Manon Lescaut is one of three famous operas based on the same book, the others being Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Massenet's Manon. Auber's version is the most neglected of the three and not many recordings exist, though one noted recording is from 1975, with the soprano Mady Mesplé and conductor Jean-Pierre Marty.

Although this opera was performed once around 1977 in New York City by a small opera company, there is another live performance occurring in 2006. The Lyric Opera of Los Angeles, specializing in lesser-known operatic works, has undertaken a production of this opera at the historic Los Angeles Theatre in downtown L.A.

While the story only loosely resembles the original novel by Prévost (for instance, in the Auber opera, Manon's cousin is the trouble-instigator, instead of her brother as in the novel. There's one character - le Marquis d'Herigny - who represents the several wealthy suitors the Manon became involved with in the novel. Other characters are absent entirely, and others are completely new to this telling of the story).

The principal role of Manon Lescaut is a serious coloratura soprano role with possibilities for several high F's, almost never-ending florid passages, and several major arias. The role of le Marquis d'Herigny is for a baritone and features 3 full airs/couplets before he "dies" at the end of Act II. Le Chevalier des Grieux, Manon's primary love interest, is a tenor. Although he has the 2nd most amount of music to sing, he only has one aria right at the very end of the opera. It sits quite high. There are other roles as well - Marguerite (soprano), Lescaut (bass/baritone), Durozeau/Renaud (bass/baritone), Gervais (tenor), Madame Bancelin (Mezzo soprano), le Sergeant (baritone), un bourgeois (tenor), and Zaby (soprano).

There was previously only one known copy of the piano/vocal score, able to be checked out from a library. It is now also available through Lyric Opera of Los Angeles. Additionally, the only known copy of the conductors score was only available on microfilm at the New York Public Library. There were no individual parts for the orchestral players available in the U.S. Parts have been created through a meticulous cut & paste operation performed over the course of many weeks on the public-domain conductor's score.