Manon Lescaut

The work that officially established Giacomo Puccini as one of opera’s greatest composers, the youthful Manon Lescaut has many of the hallmarks of Puccini’s enduringly popular style: a passionate romance, soaring arias, lush orchestration, and a devastatingly tragic ending. In this radio broadcast, Italian soprano Mirella Freni stars in the title role, a young woman whose taste for luxury ultimately spells her undoing. Alongside the legendary diva, the cast also features tenor Peter Dvorsky as Manon’s besotted lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, and baritone Brian Schexnayder as her unbending brother, Lescaut. Maestro Nello Santi, who led more than 400 performances with the company over the course of nearly four decades, takes the podium to conduct.