Manon Lescaut

• Puccini’s Manon Lescaut premiered in Turin on Feb. 1, 1893.¹
• The libretto is based on the novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost (1697-1763). This novel was also the inspiration for Auber’s Manon Lescaut and Massenet’s Manon.²
• Puccini’s publisher Ricordi discouraged his selection of Manon Lescaut for an operatic treatment because Massenet’s version (1884, less than a decade old) was so popular. Puccini explained his choice saying, 

“Manon is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. Why shouldn’t there be two operas about her? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover.”

Puccini³

• Synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera

1. Michele Girardi, “Puccini, Giacomo (ii),” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed December 26, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278242.
2. Ibid.
3. Quoted in Julian Budden, “Manon Lescaut (ii),” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed December 26, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000903177.