Manon, Quarantined

Need to Know

Jules Massenet (1842-1912), the youngest of 12, was born to a father who was a blacksmith and brothers that worked in the military. He would later tell a magazine: “I was born surrounded by the heavy sounds of bronze hammers, as the antique poet said. Here is a very little musical start”.

Massenet’s mother Adélaïde was a painter and musician and taught her son piano. She taught him to be a very diligent student and the young Jules would begin practicing every morning at 9am. By the age of ten, he joined the Paris Conservatory and by the age of 17 he would win the prestigious Prix de Rome.

Manon premiered in 1884 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and is based on Abbé Prévost’s novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. Massenet composed the score in his country home and also spent time at the home Prévost once lived for inspiration.

Massenet met his favorite soprano in 1886, American Sibyl Sanderson. Sanderson would eventually sing the role of Manon and inspired the creation of characters in Massenet’s operas Esclarmonde and Thaïs. Historians cannot confirm the exact extent of the composer and singer’s relationship, but Sanderson often signed letters to Massenet, “Your Manon”.

Mad for Massenet? Check out Thaïs Quarantine Page & Werther Quarantine Page. Also check out more facts from Francemusique.fr.

The original Material Girl!

Step aside Madonna, the original “Material Girl” is the character Manon who chooses luxury over love. To celebrate your pre-opera cocktail is the aptly named “Material Girl Cocktail”. Watch John build this gin based spirit here.

Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz Gin, 1/2 oz St. Germain, 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1 oz Apple Juice, Orange Twist for a garnish. Directions: Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake, strain into a chilled coup glass, and garnish with orange twist. Enjoy!

Synopsis

Overview

Manon is a simple 5 act opera about a country girl turned socialite turned repentant criminal. The opera centers around the complicated relationship of Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut.

From historian James Allen Feldman: “Like the Parisian gentlemen in Prévost’s Manon Lescaut, Massenet found Manon irresistible. Most of his twenty-nine existing operas feature women characters, but Manon surpasses them all in unrestrained seductiveness. Aristocrats vie for her regard. At the sight of her, old men wish themselves young. All of sixteen, Manon lives only by the moment. Her appetite for pleasure is outrageous, her behavior scandalous; yet men indulge her excessive whims to the limit.”

Here is a great break down of the opera with multiple audio and video clips, as well as descriptions to the acts, leitmotifs, and other insights from opera-inside.com. They also do a great 4 minute synopsis of the opera (ignore the music, it’s from Cavalleria Rusticana).