MANON

Composer: JULES MASSENET Book by Henri Merruac and PUILIPPPE GILLE based on L’His to ire de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost First performance: Opéra comique, Paris, January 19, 1884 5 acts. ON HER WAY to a convent Manon meets Chevalier des Grieux whom she instantly loves. In Paris where they go to live together the Chevalier is not succe ful in getting his father’s consent to marriage. He is kidnapped by his father after De Bretigny has asked Manon to go with him and be his mistre . After Des Grieux’s disappearance she lives with De Bretigny until she finds that the Chevalier is about to take holy orders. She rushes to St. Sulpice and convinces him that he should depart with her. Later, in a gambling house, the Chevalier and Manon are both arrested for cheating at cards. He is freed through his father’s influence, but Manon is to be deported to America with others of her sisterhood. Des Grieux and Lescaut, her cousin, had planned to rescue her, but when she appears in the proce ion to the ship she is ill and spent. She dies in the Chevalier’s arms.