He had presented the first German performances of Puccini's Manon Lescaut and De Falla's La Vida Breve.

On commencing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that " no fool of a librettist " could spoil it.

Manon Lescaut was a great success and laid the foundations for Puccini's career and reputation.

* Manon Lescaut, libretto by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva ( premiered at the Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893 )

Among Leoncavallo's libretti for other composers is his contribution to the libretto for Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

First page of the redacted 1753 edition of Manon Lescaut.

Manon Lescaut ( L ' Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut ) is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost.

Set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century, the story follows the hero le Chevalier Des Grieux and his lover Manon Lescaut.

* Manon Lescaut ( 1856 ), an opera by French composer Daniel Auber

* Manon Lescaut ( 1893 ), an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini

* Manon Lescaut ( 1830 ), a ballet by Jean-Louis Aumer.

In the novel The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, Manon Lescaut is an all-important model and point of comparison for Marguerite's life, loves, and death.

In the opening pages, the narrator encounters a copy of Manon Lescaut in the auction of Marguerite Gautier's estate, and buys it.

" The narrator learns this copy of Manon Lescaut was a gift from Armand to Marguerite, Armand telling him that she read the story " over and over again ," making notes in the margins and " declar that when a woman loves, she can not do as Manon did.

) In Act I of Dumas's play The Lady of the Camellias, the characters attend a performance of the ballet Manon Lescaut.

In chapter 4 of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian leafs through a copy of Manon Lescaut while waiting for Lord Henry.

In Book II chapter 28 of Stendhal's novel Le Rouge et le Noir, Julien and the woman he pretends to court, Madame de Fervaques, watch the opera Manon Lescaut while Julien is really thinking about his other lovers, Madame de Rênal and Mathilde de la Mole.

Michael Fane, the hero of Compton Mackenzie's controversial novel, Sinister Street, reads Manon Lescaut just before plunging into his own hopeless pursuit of a ' fallen woman '.

In the mystery novel Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers and its series adaptation by BBC Television, Lord Peter Wimsey solves the case by reference to Manon Lescaut.

Manon Lescaut is mentioned in a novel written by an important Romanian writer, Mihail Drumes.

In one of his novels, entitled Invitatie la vals, referring to Carl Maria von Weber's " Invitation to the Dance " ( later orchestrated by Berlioz ), a comparison is made between the novel's main character and Manon Lescaut.

When Manon died of polio at age 18, composer Alban Berg wrote his Violin Concerto in memory of her ( it is inscribed " to the memory of an angel ").

He reflects that Marguerite died alone in a " sumptuous bed " and Manon in the desert in her lover's arms, concluding that the former is worse, for Marguerite died " in that desert of the heart, a more barren, a vaster, a more pitiless desert than that in which Manon had found her last resting-place.

Manon is also referenced in the films Manon des Sources ( 1953 by Marcel Pagnol and 1986 by Claude Berri ) and Jean de Florette ( entitled Ugolin in 1953 by Marcel Pagnol and 1986 by Claude Berri ).

Yoshimi Iwasaki's ( 岩崎良美 ) 1980 hit song Anata iro no Manon ( あなた色のマノン ) is about Manon Lescaut.

She is buried in the Grinzing section of Vienna, in the same cemetery as her daughter Manon Gropiusand her first husband Gustav Mahler.

Also notable is the Manon Caine Russell-Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall, an architectural marvel which is said to contain some of the best acoustics in the entire Western United States.

Wewelsburg is also featured in the video game Medal of Honor: Underground ( 2000 ), in a mission where French Resistance Fighter Manon is sent to uncover Himmler's occult activities in the castle.

Manon () is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L ’ histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost.

Manon is Massenet's most popular and enduring opera and, having " quickly conquered the world's stages ", it has maintained an important place in the repertory since its creation.

Today, Manon is frequently performed.

* Manon Lescaut, audio version 20px

Highlights in Boston that she conducted and / or stage directed included La voyage de la lune, Otello ( with Tito Gobbi as Iago ), Command Performance ( world premiere ), Manon and Faust ( both with Beverly Sills and Norman Treigle ), Lulu ( U. S. East Coast premiere ), I puritani ( with Dame Joan Sutherland ), Intolleranza ( U. S. premiere ), Boris Godunov ( original version ), Hippolyte et Aricie ( U. S. stage premiere, with Plácido Domingo ), La bohème ( with Renata Tebaldi and Domingo ), Moses und Aron ( U. S. premiere ), The Rake's Progress, Bluebeard's Castle, Carmen ( with Marilyn Horne ), Macbeth ( original version ), The Good Soldier Schweik, The Fisherman and His Wife ( world premiere, with Muriel Costa-Greenspon ), La finta giardiniera, Norma ( with Sills ), Les Troyens, Don Carlos ( U. S. premiere of original French version ), Don Quichotte, War and Peace ( U. S. stage premiere, with Arlene Saunders ), Benvenuto Cellini ( U. S. premiere, with Jon Vickers ), I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Montezuma ( U. S. premiere ), Ruslan and Ludmila ( U. S. premiere ), Rigoletto ( with Sills, Richard Fredricks, and Susanne Marsee ), Stiffelio ( U. S. stage premiere ), La damnation de Faust, Tosca ( with Magda Olivero ), La vide breve, El retablo de maese Pedro, The Ice Break ( U. S. premiere ), Aïda ( with Shirley Verrett in the title role ), Die Soldaten ( U. S. premiere ), The Invisible City of Kitezh, Taverner ( U. S. premiere ), The Makropoulos Case ( with Anja Silja, William Cochran, and Chester Ludgin ), Médée ( in French and Greek ), Dead Souls ( U. S. premiere ), Der Rosenkavalier ( with Dame Gwyneth Jones ), and, finally, The Balcony ( world premiere, 1990 ).

Other librettos by Meilhac include Jules Massenet's Manon ( with Philippe Gille ) ( 1884 ), Hervé's Mam ' zelle Nitouche ( 1883 ), and Rip, the French version of Robert Planquette's operetta Rip Van Winkle ( also with Gille ).

The Violin Concerto was dedicated " to the memory of an Angel ", Manon Gropius, the deceased daughter of architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler.

Madame Roland ( aka Manon or Marie Roland ) was another important female activist.

Born in Berlin, Walter Gropius was the third child of Walter Adolph Gropius and Manon Auguste Pauline Scharnweber.

Walter and Alma's daughter, named Manon after Walter's mother, was born in 1916.

Beyond the name of the heroine, her grandmother was referenced as having sung Manon.

The event that spurred him into writing was the death by polio of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler ( once Gustav Mahler's wife ) and Walter Gropius.

In the following century the abbé Prévost, who was a conscientious collaborator with the Benedictines of Saint-Maur before he became the author of the more profane work Manon Lescaut, was in treaty with a Dutch publisher for a translation which was to consist of ten volumes ; only the first volume appeared ( 1733 ).

The EMI recording of Massenet's Manon with Gheorghiu in the title role won the 2001 Gramophone Award for " Best Opera Recording ", was nominated for " Best Opera Recording " in the 2002 Grammy Awards.

The first Manon was Marie Heilbron ; other noted interpreters include Sybil Sanderson ( Massenet's personal favorite ), Fanny Heldy, Lucrezia Bori, Bidu Sayao, Victoria de los Ángeles, Anna Moffo, Beverly Sills, Edita Gruberova, Renée Fleming, Anna Netrebko, and Natalie Dessay.

Due to its heavy vocal demands, the role of Manon was described by Sills as " the French Isolde ".

Within a year of its Paris premiere, Manon was given its UK premiere in January 1885, in Liverpool ; in the US, the Academy of Music in New York presented the opera later the same year, on 23 December.

With the disruption of the fire at the Opéra-Comique and Massenet's work on other operatic projects ( especially Esclarmonde ), it was put to one side, until the Vienna Opera, pleased with the success of Manon, asked the composer for a new work.

As a singer, Sayão was forever to remain his passion, one which was accentuated by seeing her in Manon performances in Montreal.

* The Abbé Prévost, ( April 1, 1697 – 1763 ), celebrated novelist known worldwide for his Manon Lescaut, was born in Hesdin.

Ivy St. Helier played Manon, and the role of the aged Marquis of Shayne was played by the 26 year-old Alan Napier, later to gain fame as Batman's butler, Alfred, in the 1960s ( both repeated their roles in the 1933 film ).

Manon Rhéaume was married to Gerry St-Cyr, a roller hockey player and minor league hockey player in June 1998, whom she later divorced.

The episode was inspired by the French movie Manon of the Spring.