Introducing Puccini's Manon Lescaut

Stephen Aviss, who performs the role of Edmondo in Investec Opera Holland Park's upcoming production of Manon Lescaut (4 - 26 June 2019), introduces the themes of the opera.

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Before Mimi, Tosca and Cio-Cio San there was Manon Lescaut. Greedy for pleasure, the impulsive antiheroine was the first femme fatale in French literature.

Premiered in Turin in 1893, Puccini’s adaptation turned a sentimental narrative into an operatic sensation. Four episodes of ensnarement and escape trace the affair between Manon and Des Grieux from Amiens to Paris, and Le Havre to Louisiana, with a stunning intermezzo for strings. In the cruel and glorious opera that made Puccini’s name, a convent girl becomes a courtesan, then a convict, forever unable to choose between a life of luxury and a life of love.

Cast: Cast: Elizabeth Llewellyn, Paul Carey Jones, Peter Auty, Stephen Richardson, Benjamin Bevan, Stephen Aviss, Ellie Edmonds, John Wood, Mike Bradley and Alistair Sutherland

Photos featured are taken from rehearsals and stage performances for La traviata in 2018 and Stephen Aviss's performance at the OHP Gala dinner in November 2018.