- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of Illustrations
- List of Musical Examples
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: The Business and Politics of Opera in Fin‐de‐Siècle Paris
- 1 The Ascent of Massenet
- 2 Manon
- 3 Around an American Muse
- 4 Esclarmonde
- 5 Massenet at the Apex
- 6 Werther
- 7 ThaÏs
- 8 Massenet Emasculated
- 9 Ernest Reyer as Berliozian
- 10 Sigurd
- 11 Camille Saint‐SaËns, Gounod, and the Wagnerians
- 12 Saint‐SaËns on the Cusp
- 13 Henry VIII
- 14 Édouard Lalo: Wagnerian <i>malgré lui</i>
- 15 Le Roi d'Ys
- 16 Emmanuel Chabrier: Wagnerian of the First Hour
- 17 Gwendoline
- 18 Le Roi malgré lui
- 19 Vincent d'Indy and Moral Order
- 20 The <i>Franckiste</i> as Wagner Critic
- 21 Fervaal
- 22 The Apotheosis of Ernest Chausson
- 23 Le Roi Arthus
- 24 Alfred Bruneau and Émile Zola
- 25 L'Attaque du moulin
- 26 Bohemian Montmartre, Anarchism, and Gustave Charpentier
- 27 Louise
- Epilogue by Way of <i>Pelléas et Mélisande</i>
- Appendix: Plot Summaries
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Manon
Manon
- Chapter:
- (p.45) 2 Manon
- Source:
- French Opera at the Fin de Siecle
- Author(s):
Steven Huebner
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter focuses on the collaboration between Massenet and Carvalho of the Opéra-Comique. According to Édouard NoËl, then an administrative assistant at that theatre, it was Carvalho who first thought of a Manon based upon Abbé Prévost's famous 18th-century novel Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. The occasion was an Opéra-Comique gala on 30 January 1882 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Auber's birth. The idea for a new work on the subject supposedly hit Carvalho during the resounding ovation after the piece. He immediately approached Massenet. On 2 February Hartmann drew up a contract for delivery of a libretto by 1 March with two writers who had just paired up: Philippe Gille, co-librettist for Delibes's recent success Lakmé, and Henri Meilhac of Carmen fame. On 19 January 1884, the curtain rose on what became one of the most successful operas in the entire French repertory.
Keywords: Carvalho, Opéra-Comique, Abbé Prévost, Auber, Massenet
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of Illustrations
- List of Musical Examples
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: The Business and Politics of Opera in Fin‐de‐Siècle Paris
- 1 The Ascent of Massenet
- 2 Manon
- 3 Around an American Muse
- 4 Esclarmonde
- 5 Massenet at the Apex
- 6 Werther
- 7 ThaÏs
- 8 Massenet Emasculated
- 9 Ernest Reyer as Berliozian
- 10 Sigurd
- 11 Camille Saint‐SaËns, Gounod, and the Wagnerians
- 12 Saint‐SaËns on the Cusp
- 13 Henry VIII
- 14 Édouard Lalo: Wagnerian <i>malgré lui</i>
- 15 Le Roi d'Ys
- 16 Emmanuel Chabrier: Wagnerian of the First Hour
- 17 Gwendoline
- 18 Le Roi malgré lui
- 19 Vincent d'Indy and Moral Order
- 20 The <i>Franckiste</i> as Wagner Critic
- 21 Fervaal
- 22 The Apotheosis of Ernest Chausson
- 23 Le Roi Arthus
- 24 Alfred Bruneau and Émile Zola
- 25 L'Attaque du moulin
- 26 Bohemian Montmartre, Anarchism, and Gustave Charpentier
- 27 Louise
- Epilogue by Way of <i>Pelléas et Mélisande</i>
- Appendix: Plot Summaries
- Selected Bibliography
- Index