New L.P. Version of Puccini's "Manon"
ANON LESCAUT was Puccini's first great success among his operas. He says in one of his letters: "If only I could be a'purely symphonic writer! But that was not for me. I was born sO many years ago ... and Almighty God touched me with His little finger and said, ‘Write for the theatre-mind, only for the theatre,’ and I have Sbeyed the supreme command." So, on the night of February 1, 1893, Manon was produced at the Teatro Reggio, Turin. In the comments by the Press the following day the work was acclaimed as magnificent, which is rather surprising since Puccini had used no fewer than three librettists.. His keen theatrical sense made him ask for alterations in each of their librettos, and caused some hard feelings. Puccini once wrote that when he was composing he had to be able. to see his artists at work, meaning that
unless a scene appeared so clearly before him that it became almost visual he could not write. The third librettist who worked on Manon was Luigi Illica, and this was the beginning of the collaboration which brought forth the fine
librettos of La Boheme, Tosca and Butterfly. The Abbé Prévost’s story of the young courtesan, Manon, who was loved by the noble but hopelessly-infatuated Chevalier des Grieux, has long held a fascination for composers. Both Auber and Massenet treated it before Puccini. Its ambivalent moral of the spoiled beauty, half-redeemed by her love but unable to resist the flesh-pots of Paris, until she is eventually cast out and dies a tragic death, caused a storm when Puccini's opera was first produced: at Covent Garden in 1894. Even today critics recognise it as_containing some of the most ardent pages that Puccini ever wrote. On Sunday, November 28, at 7.0 p.m., YC stations will broadcast a new L.P. version of Manon Lescaut, with Clara Petrella and Vasco Campagnano as the lovers. The Chorus and Orchestra of the Italian Radio, Turin. will be conducted by Federico del Cupolo.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 800, 19 November 1954, Page 8
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339New L.P. Version of Puccini's "Manon" New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 800, 19 November 1954, Page 8
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