Giacomo Puccini

Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut is the first volume of the series "The operas of Giacomo Puccini" - Critical Edition - in collaboration with Archivio storico Ricordi and Fondazione Simonetta Puccini. It makes available the three main versions of the opera that have survived in various sources: an 1893 version, with the original Act I finale, the first version of Manon's Act IV aria, and the uncut version of the final duet in Act IV; a "midcareer" version imagined by Puccini in the first decade of the new century, when he sanctioned the almost complete omission of Manon's Act IV aria; and finally the last version that Puccini lived to approve, with Manon's aria restored, albeit with a revised literary text.

The volume is introduced by a preface to the Puccini Critical Edition, an historical introduction, a detailed description of the opera's many sources and a lengthy critical commentary which discusses numerous problematic details in the musical text.