Opera Daily 🎶 — Manon Lescaut

This week's Opera Daily features “In quelle trine morbide,” a soprano aria from Act 2 of the Italian opera Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini

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Today we’re listening to…

“In quelle trine morbide,” a soprano aria from Act 2 of the four-act Italian opera Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini. This opera is a work of art, and I promise you, little prior knowledge of opera is required to appreciate its greatness.

A subscriber once asked me which aria I thought was the most beautiful.

This is highly subjective, but for the most part, I see beautiful as different from great. Di Quella Pira from Il Trovatore is not beautiful, but it is great. Beautiful, to me, means melodic, agreeable, and lyrical.

However, “In quelle trine morbide,” to me is an exception in that it is beautiful and great.

I will leave you with one anecdote on this point: When I was in high school, I would go to the opera with my mother, and at intermission, she would ask me, “Was that good?” And I would answer: “If you liked it, then it was good.”

🎧 Listen here (2 minute listen): Soprano Mirella Freni singing “In quelle trine morbide,” a soprano aria from Act 2 of the four-act Italian opera Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini.

Manon Lescaut is a love story full of sensuality and explores the struggle between vice and virtue.

In eighteenth-century France, a student, Des Grieux (tenor), falls in love with Manon (soprano), who has arrived from the country with her brother Lescaut (baritone). A wealthy older gentleman called Geronte (bass) is obsessed with Manon and plans to abduct her 😳, but she escapes to Paris with Des Grieux.

In Act 2, we see that Manon has left Des Grieux and goes to live with Geronte. While she enjoys the cushy life that Geronte offers her, she remembers Des Grieux’s love and sings how she is not sure she made the right decision to live with Geronte.

In those soft lace hangings, in that gilt alcove, there is a silence, a mortal chill
there is a silence, a coldness that turns me to ice!
And I who was accustomed to a voluptuous caress of ardent lips and passionate arms
now have something quite different.
Oh, my humble dwelling, you again appear before me – cheerful, secluded, white-walled, like a sweet dream of peace and love.

Want more?

• Manon Lescaut is the third opera of Puccini (rhymes with “Pants on, let’s go!”)

• This opera is different from Manon by Jules Massenet. Nine years before Puccini began writing Manon Lescaut, Jules Massenet premiered Manon, based on the same novel (The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost). Puccini reportedly said, “Manon is a heroine I believe in, and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. Why shouldn’t there be two operas about her? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover.”

• If you are looking for a full version of the opera, I recommend this recording with Mirella Freni and Placido Domingo. Also, while Maria Callas never sang this role on stage, her interpretation is perfection.🙏🏼

Grateful for your time and ears,

Michele

PS. Missed our last edition? We featured “Soave sia il vento,” a trio from Act 1 of Così fan tutte.

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