«My mouth is an altar / where your kiss is God!»

A modern enchantment of love in Puccini’s "Manon Lescaut"

Abstract

Manon Lescaut, Giacomo Puccini’s third troubled opera, was often mistreated by critics. Nevertheless, if stripped of the influence of Puccini’s greatest works and of those of other authors on the same subject, the interpretation of Manon Lescaut reveals unexpected boldness and affinity with the innovations of Wagner and the twentieth-century theatrical language. The last act symbolically embodies these aspects and this is why we have also paid attention to the way in which it was played theatrically.