Le portrait de Manon

Le portrait de Manon is an opéra comique in one act by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Georges Boyer. It is related to Massenet's 1884 opera Manon, widely regarded to be his masterpiece. However Le portrait de Manon is rarely performed today. It premiered on 8 May 1894 at Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Synopsis
The opera is set in the mid-eighteenth century. The action takes place in a richly furnished room in the Chevalier Des Grieux’s country château. Through a French window can be seen the village square where villagers are singing and dancing. The voice of the young girl Aurore is heard over their song. Des Grieux, now no longer the dashing young man from the opera Manon, enters the room and muses bitterly on the pain of love. He loves Aurore’s voice but is at the same time troubled by it, for it reminds him of his tragic love of Manon. Holding a miniature portrait of her, he recalls their first meeting at a coaching inn in Amiens, then their happy days living together in Paris, Manon’s love of extravagance, his family’s objections, and the tragic outcome of their love.

He puts away Manon’s portrait as Jean comes in. He is the eighteen-year-old Vicomte de Morceuf, Des Grieux’s nephew and ward. He is also his pupil, and they sit down together to study Roman history. Jean recites the story of the Continence of Scipio (a favourite subject for eighteenth-century painters), in which the older Scipio freely hands over his beautiful captive slave to the man she loves. ‘How can one live without love?’ murmurs Jean, and then confess to his uncle that he is in love himself.

Des Grieux is troubled to think that his instruction has fallen on deaf ears and asks who can have inspired such love. As Jean describes the girl, Des Grieux is reminded of Manon, and when Jean names her as sixteen-year-old Aurore, Des Grieux is horrified because she is a girl of no standing and no family, not worthy to be a Vicomtesse. Jean leaves downhearted, and Des Grieux’s eccentric friend Tiberge comes in with some verse for his host to hear. The poem does not please him, nor does the fable that follows. When Tiberge mentions Manon’s name, Des Grieux, trying to forget the painful past, is enraged. Tiberge then pleads the cause of Jean and Aurore, which Des Grieux abruptly dismisses as an impossible union and goes out.

The lovers come in, believing Tiberge has won Des Grieux over. Tiberge gives them the bad news and leaves. They have no choice but to die. But how? Drowning? Too horrible! Poison? Too painful! Hanging? No! A sword through the heart? No, the heart is full of love! Aurore sings a song her grandmother taught her about shepherds and shepherdess in love. Jean insists on a kiss. As a tease Aurore evades him and in the scuffle they knock the portrait of Manon out of its box. Jean had never seen it before. When Tiberge comes in and sees the portrait, he has an idea and leads Aurore out.

Des Grieux comes in, angry with Jean for bringing Aurore to the château. Jean is ordered to leave that evening. As night falls Des Grieux is now alone. Sorry that he has been so rigid with Jean he is proud to have deprived love of yet another victim. The memory of Manon haunts him still.

Suddenly he sees Aurore outside the window, dressed as Manon as she was in the hostelry in Amiens. He is overcome, knowing that ‘love is truth’ and that Manon would have wished love to triumph. He brings in Aurore, who is followed by Jean and Tiberge. Des Grieux relents and gives the lovers his blessing. Tiberge reveals that Aurore’s father was Lescaut, Manon’s brother, hence the likeness, and that he knew about the portrait all along. Everyone is overjoyed.

Musical numbers

 * "Hardi! Hardi! Les jeunes filles" - chorus
 * "Les baisers sont des papillons" - Aurore, Des Greiux
 * "Voilà ton image chérie" - Des Greiux
 * "En l'an deux cent onze de Rome" - Jean de Moncerf, Des Greiux
 * "La rose est douce à regarder" - Tiberge
 * "Dans le puits où jadis logeait la vérité" - Tiberge
 * "Manon, toujours Manon" - Des Greiux, Tiberge
 * "Bon Monsieur, vous avez reussi" - Aurore, Jean de Moncerf, Tiberge
 * "Aurore, il faut mourir" - Jean de Moncerf, Aurore
 * "Au jardin, Colin s'en vint au matin" - Aurore
 * "Bravo! Bravo! La chanson est charmante" - Jean de Moncerf, Aurore, Des Greiux
 * "Ô toi qui nous viens des Enfers" - Des Greiux
 * "L'amour, ineffable mystere" - Aurore, chorus
 * "Enfants, mes chers enfants, votre peine est finie" - Des Greiux, Aurore, Jean de Moncerf, Tiberge

Recordings

 * 1950: Conductor Mario Rossi, RAI Milano, Renato Capecchi, Tomaso Spataro, Tamara Del Remo, Carla Schlean
 * 1970: Conductor Pieralberto Biondi, RAI Milano, Walter Alberti, Angelo Zanotti, Isidoro Antonioli, Dora Carral
 * 1973: Conductor David Lloyd-Jones, BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, Neil Howlett, Adrian De Peyer, Delia Wallis, Wendy Eathorne
 * 1985: Conductor Tiziano Severini, Teatro la Fenice di Venezia, Franco Sioli, Pietro Bottazzo, Gloria Banditelli, Marina Bolgan
 * 2013: Conductor Geoffrey Patterson, Southbank Sinfonia, Zheng Zhong Zhou, Hanna Hipp, Pablo Bemsch, Susana Gaspar