SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Ópera de Tenerife has presented the second title of its 2023-2024 season: ‘Manon’, by Jules Massenet, where the protagonist is torn between love and wealth. On November 21, 23 and 25 it will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphony Hall. Tickets can be obtained from 25 euros (5 euros for those under 30 years of age) and, in addition, there are discounts available for students, the unemployed, large families and groups.
The details of this co-production between the Auditorio de Tenerife, the Municipal de Santiago-Ópera Nacional de Chile and Ópera de Oviedo were announced by the artistic director of the Auditorium, José Luis Rivero; musical director, Christopher Franklin; the stage director, Emilio Sagi, and the protagonist who plays Manon, the soprano Sabina Puértolas.
José Luis Rivero explained that this ‘Manon’ is the first production for Ópera de Tenerife with the Chilean Opera and one of the many that they have already undertaken with Ópera de Oviedo. The artistic director highlighted that for Ópera de Tenerife “this is the premiere of ‘Manon’, since we had not staged it, so it will be a discovery for our audience,” he added. Finally, Rivero wanted to highlight that opera culture “is more alive than ever.”
The soprano Sabina Puértolas confessed that since she arrived on the island she has written to her family and friends with “kisses from paradise”: “I love Ópera de Tenerife and the affection with which we are treated here, where we have formed a great team to that the audience feels the same as us when we go on stage”. Regarding her leading role, she explained that Manon “is a girl who lives life in sips, that she does not see who can affect her decisions and that she does what she wants to the last consequences.” . For Puértolas, “each production is different and there are always nuances because I respond to inputs such as the acoustics of the theaters or my colleagues on stage.”
Christopher Franklin, who will lead the Tenerife Symphony, recalled that ‘Manon’ is one of the first operas he directed. Although he has lived for many years in Italy, where Puccini’s version of this story (Manon Lescaut) is most recognized, he personally feels “closer” to Massenet’s score. Regarding the work with this title “unusual in the repertoire”, he shared “the intensity of the days with which they work on this large stage with rotating stairs, difficult to organize and direct with the musicians from the pit and the singers on stage”.
Emilio Sagi debuted in December 2003 at the newly inaugurated Tenerife Auditorium with the opera L’equivoco stravagante by Rossini, a production of the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. “I return 20 years later very happy with this Manon, a play that I always wanted to direct and that these three theaters have rewarded me with this opportunity. It is a wonderful play, full of nuances that stars Manon, a woman in a man’s world, a poor young woman who has nothing, and her parents send her to a convent, which was common at that time, and she has to navigate a world she doesn’t know, being dazzled by the way of life of high society,” analyzes the multi-award-winning ovetense Sagi cited Borges, who in his stories only wanted to excite and entertain, to explain that “our job is to excite and give the maximum spectacle possible.”
ABOUT MANON.
This opera in five acts and six scenes has a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the novel Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on January 19, 1884.
Manon is a very young character who oscillates between passionate love at first sight and her desire for wealth and freedom. The story, which takes place in France under the reign of Louis
Then he meets by chance at an inn the Chevalier Des Grieux, a young student. A single look is enough for them to fall in love. They decide to escape to Paris but the idyll is short-lived. Manon cannot live on love alone and she accepts the offer of a life of luxury in exchange for being the lover of a rich lord, Guillot Morfontaine. Des Grieux is not willing to leave her and will follow her on a tortuous path.
The Sagi team, which has worked on the stage and in the artistic direction of national and international theaters, is completed with the set design by Daniel Bianco, 11 meters high that occupies 240 square meters of the Auditorium stage, and which is inspired in the work of 18th century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard to offer an 18th century air of luxury. The costumes, in the classic style, are signed by Pablo Núñez and the lighting design is by Eduardo Bravo.
Christopher Franklin will conduct the baton of the Tenerife Symphony, which will be accompanied by forty voices from the Tenerife Opera Choir-Intermezzo, directed by Andrés Juncos, among whom nine partiquinos will stand out with more prominent roles.
Puértolas will transform into Manon, as she already did in November 2022 at the premiere of this proposal at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago and last September at Ópera de Oviedo. The Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan will play Le chevalier des Grieux, Manon’s lover. The baritone Luis Cansino will transform into Lescaut, Manon’s cousin, and the South Korean bass Insung Sim will play Le Comte des Grieux, father of the gentleman suitor.
Guillot Morfontaine, Minister of Finance who will become obsessed with Manon, will be played by the tenor Gillen Munguía and Monsieur de Brétigny, a noble friend of his, will be played by the baritone Lorenzo Barbieri. Soprano Inés Lorans and mezzo-sopranos Claire Gascoin and Christina Campsall will play the roles of actresses Pousette, Javotte and Rosette, respectively. Bassist Abraham García will sing the roles of the innkeeper, the doorman of the Saint Sulpice seminary and a croupier. On the other hand, 21 extras will complete the scenes.
Jules Massenet was born in Montaud, France, near Saint-Étienne, on May 12, 1842 and died in Paris, on August 13, 1912. Throughout his life, this musician of French Romanticism was widely recognized for his work. lyrical, although in his compositional work he addressed other registers, from ballets, oratorios and cantatas to songs, orchestral works and piano compositions. His operas were very popular in the period between centuries, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.
Tickets for Manon’s performances can be purchased on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.comat the box office from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and by phone by calling 902 317 327 during the same hours.
