Last day today to see Manon Lescaut, by Giacomo Puccini, at La Faràndula de Sabadell (6 p.m.), the third production of the Òpera a Catalunya season, which goes on tour around the territory this March. The sopranos Carmen Solís and Berna Perles alternate in the leading role in this title, which was the composer’s first success, when he premiered it in 1893 in Turin. And Massenet had already made a splash years before by adapting Abbot Prévost’s L’historie du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731).
The company d’Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell, artistically directed by Mirna Lacambra, had only performed once (in 2017) this story of a girl who, on her way to the convent to become a nun, meets the student Des Grieux by chance in an inn and They experience a crush. Her plans to escape to Paris will be thwarted by her brother, who wants to sell her to the highest bidder.
The Simfònica del Vallès and the Cor Amics de l’Opera de Sabadell directed by Daniel Gil de Tejada are the stable bodies of the Ópera Catalunya cycle that on this occasion are under the command of the Italian maestro Elio Orciuolo, who has already directed thirteen operas with this company. This is his second Manon Lescaut in the pit.
They accompany a cast completed by Madrid tenor Enrique Ferrer as Des Grieux, a mature voice that has developed in opera, zarzuela and oratorio repertoire in theaters in Spain and abroad; the Serbian baritone Milan Periši?, who is one of the singers in the second edition of the Crescendo young artists program at the Teatro Real in Madrid and will be heard in the Sopars Lírics cycle at 7 Portes; the Valencian tenor Jorge Juan Morata and the Barcelona bass Juan Carlos Esteve, both present in the Madama Butterfly that Òpera Catalunya offered last season.
The cast of this production is completed by the stage director himself, Carles Ortiz, who as a tenor plays the Maestro di ballo; soprano Laura Obradors (Un músico), baritone Quim Cornet (Un oste), tenor Oriol Luque (Un lampionaio), tenor Alejandro Chelet (Sergente) and bass Lluís Vergés (Commandante), all participants in the School of Sabadell Opera House.
Solís was scheduled to sing on Wednesday, the day of the premiere, but a viral illness forced the order of the artists leading the cast to be altered. Thus, the Extremaduran soprano ended up making her debut in the role on Friday in the capital of Vallès and today it is once again Perles who gives life to Manon. After these three performances at La Farándula, the title tours from March 1 to 24 through Sant Cugat del Vallès, Granollers, Tarragona, Manresa, Girona, Lleida and Cornellà de Llobregat, where the second opera will take place after having been added to the circuit the previous season with Madam Butterfly. In total there are ten functions in eight cities.
La Faràndula will present up to four Puccini titles in 2024. On the occasion of the capital status of Catalan culture, the Sabadell Opera Season (the embryo of the Òpera a Catalunya cycle) undertakes an artistic and technical milestone: that of celebrating the centenary of Puccini’s death by addressing his most emblematic operas: this Manon Lescaut which ends today, Turandot (April 17, 19 and 21) and, next season, La bohème and Tosca.
