Opera in five acts by Massenet; words by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, after the story by Abbé Prévost. Produced Opéra Comique, Paris, January 19, 1884; Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, March 15, 1884. In English, by the Carl Rosa Company, Liverpool, January 17, 1885; and at Drury Lane, London, May 7, 1885, with Marie Roze, Barton McGuckin, and Ludwig. In French, Covent Garden, May 14, 1894. Carcano Theatre, Milan, October 19, 1893. Academy of Music, New York, December 23, 1885, with Minnie Hauck (Manon), Giannini (Des Grieux), and Del Puente (Lescaut); Metropolitan Opera House, January 16, 1895, with Sibyl Sanderson and Jean de Reszke.
Characters
| Chevalier des Grieux | Tenor |
| Count des Grieux, his father | Bass |
| Lescaut, of the Royal Guard, cousin to Manon | Baritone |
| Guillot de Morfontaine, Minister of Finance, an old beau | Bass |
| De Brétigny, a nobleman | Baritone |
| Manon | Soprano |
| Poussette, Javotte, Rosette, actresses | Sopranos |
Students, innkeeper, a sergeant, a soldier, gamblers, merchants and their wives, croupiers, sharpers, guards, travellers, ladies, gentlemen, porters, postilions, an attendant at the Monastery of St. Sulpice, the people.
Time—1821.
Place—Amiens, Paris, Havre.
Act I. Courtyard of the inn at Amiens. Guillot and De Brétigny, who have just arrived with the actresses Poussette, Javotte, and Rosette, are shouting for the innkeeper. Townspeople crowd about the entrance to the inn. They descry a coach approaching. Lescaut, who has alighted from it, enters followed by two guardsmen. Other travellers appear amid much commotion, amusement, and shouting on the part of the townspeople. He is awaiting his cousin Manon, whom he is to conduct to a convent school, and who presently appears and gives a sample of her character, which is a mixture of demureness and vivacity, of serious affection and meretricious preferment, in her opening song, "Je suis encore tout étourdie" (A simple maiden fresh from home), in which she tells how, having left home for the first time to travel to Amiens, she sometimes wept and sometimes laughed. It is a chic little song.
Lescaut goes out to find her luggage. From the balcony of the inn the old roué Guillot sees her. She is not shocked, but laughs at his hints that he is rich and can give her whatever she wants. De Brétigny, who, accompanied by the actresses, comes out on the balcony in search of Guillot, also is much struck with her beauty. Guillot, before withdrawing with the others from the balcony, softly calls down to her that his carriage is at her disposal, if she will but enter it and await him. Lescaut returns but at the same time his two guardsmen come after him. They want him to join with them in gambling and drinking. He pretends to Manon that he is obliged to go to his armoury for a short time. Before leaving her, however, he warns her to be careful of her actions. "Regardez-moi bien dans les yeux" (Now give good heed to what I say).
Left alone, Manon expresses admiration for the jewels and finery worn by the actresses. She wishes such gems and dresses might belong to her. The Chevalier des Grieux, young, handsome, ardent, comes upon the scene. He loves Manon at first sight. Nor does she long remain unimpressed by the wooing of the Chevalier. Beginning with his words, "If I knew but your name," and her reply, "I am called Manon," the music soon becomes an impassioned love duet. To him she is an "enchantress." As for her—"À vous ma vie et mon âme" (To you my life and my soul).
Manon sees Guillot's postilion, who has been told by his master to take his orders from Manon. She communicates to Des Grieux that they will run away to Paris in Guillot's conveyance. "Nous vivrons à Paris" ('Tis to Paris we go), they shout in glad triumph, and are off. There is much confusion when the escape is discovered. Ridicule is heaped upon Guillot. For is it not in his carriage, in which the old roué hoped to find Manon awaiting him, that she has driven off with her young lover!