MANON LESCAUT • OPÉRA DE LYON
★★★★☆☆
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
REVIEW MANON LESCAUT: IMPRESSING OPERA FESTIVAL OPENER IN LYON
The 2026 Lyon Opera Festival opened with a particularly beautiful—yet also controversial—production of Puccini’s Manon Lescau, one of the composer’s early works. It was the opera that marked Puccini’s breakthrough and is often regarded as the bridge between the Verdi era and Puccini’s own dominance. GOT TO SEE THIS awards it four stars—read here why.
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
Musically, the work is filled with characteristic Puccini elements: grand emotions, clear melodic lines, and a rich orchestral sound that later made him one of the genre’s most beloved opera composers with works such as La Bohème, Tosca og Madama Butterfly.
Italian director Emma Dante’s production impresses in many ways—especially with its lavish, multi-level set design, dynamically lit and set in a contemporary visual universe. The set’s façade alternately functions as a country inn, a lover’s palace, and a women’s prison, before finally dissolving into a poetic final scene where the stage transforms into a four-poster bed, and Manon and her admirer rise into the air toward their shared fate.
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
The powerful imagery of the finale, combined with costumes in bold colors and symbol-laden elements featuring mirrors, ghosts, and commedia dell’arte figures, is both poetic and aesthetically compelling. It therefore surprises me a bit that some critics believe Dante lets the production drown in a cornucopia of visual ideas that only sporadically support the narrative. The production’s visual impact is undeniable.
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
I, on the other hand—unlike many others—am slightly less impressed by the musical quality of the orchestra and soloists, who, especially in the first part of the opera, seem surprisingly disengaged and do not quite manage to unfold the characters’ psychology. Perhaps it was due to opening-night jitters, for the level rises significantly after the intermission, when Manon is thrown into prison after being caught fleeing from her sugar daddy Geronte—along with the young, impassioned Des Grieux and all the jewels.
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
A violation of the morals of the time, which easily paints a picture of her as a ruthless bitch and an emotionally cold opportunist, even though the actual portrait is, of course, far more nuanced.
For Manon Lescaut is the story of a woman who is both beautiful and dangerous—a woman who insists on living life on her own terms, not on those others try to impose on her.
Chiara Isotton delivers a powerful and technically assured Manon with a warm tone, and in the final acts she fills the hall with vocal strength, lyrical vulnerability, and intensity. Never mind that the orchestra didn’t quite reach the same level as in the festival’s success with Billy Budd. A truly strong production, which you can also read reviewed here on DSDS.
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez
Overall, this Manon Lescaut is an audience-friendly, visually striking production—a beautiful and ambitious festival opener that earns four stars from GOT TO SEE THIS.
