Giacomo Puccini’s opera ‘Manon Lescaut’ is returning to the Janáček Theatre after more than 50 years in a new production from the Brno National Theatre (NdB), directed by Štěpán Pácl with musical staging by conductor Ondrej Olos.
‘Manon Lescaut’ was Puccini’s first great success, as well as a landmark in operas with strong female characters as their focus. The opera is based on the original French romance novel by Abbé Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles, whose heroine became an immortal literary figure and inspired a great many artists. She has been enchanting audiences since the first performance of the opera in 1893 at the Teatro Regio in Turin.
The passionate Manon is drawn both to the love of the young knight des Grieux, and to the life of luxury and wealth that only the old banker Géronte can provide her. Puccini’s work offers both passion and despair, but also hope that overcomes even the tragic end of the main character, because love never dies. In Manon, he showed that he is a masterly dramatist who can capture human emotions in music like few other composers.
This year, Manon will be the operatic debut of NdB’s regular drama director Štěpán Pácl.
“Puccini wrote a great, powerful story of two young people, people who were in no way extraordinary, but people who surrendered to the boundless power of love,” said Pácl. “And just as the story is about them, it is also about us. We too–regardless of our age or our experience in life–plunge headlong into the creative and, at the same time, destructive power of love. And the important thing is always which aspect of it we allow to prevail.”
“The opera has a famous intermezzo which in a sense unites three basic motifs – the motif of desire, which is heard in the first act, then the motif of suffering, which accompanies us in the fourth act, and the motif of the brief period of time that Manon and des Grieux spend together which is heard in their duet in the second act. These three motifs are the cornerstones of the story from the musical point of view,” added Olos.
The sets by Dragan Stojčevski also play a significant role in the production; audiences can expect a stage design that combines a contemporary minimalist approach with a reference to the Rococo, represented here by large fans.
The lead role of the beautiful Manon will be played by either Jana Šrejma Kačírková, a leading soloist at NdB’s Janáček Opera, or regular guest Linda Ballová. In the role of her lover, Renato des Grieux, will be Thalia Award-winner Peter Berger and Lviv native Mykhailo Malafii, who has a long line of successful roles on the international opera stage under his belt. Soloist Jiří Brückler will appear as Lescaut.
The production will premiere this Friday at 7pm at the Janáček, staged in the Italian original with Czech, English and German titles. Tickets are still available, and several more performances are scheduled for the coming weeks and months. See the full NdB Opera program for more information.
