Donna non vidi mai simile a questa! (Manon Lescaut)

Manon Lescaut, premiered in Turin in 1893, was the opera with which Puccini’s great international success truly began. He was drawn to Abbé Prévost’s story of Manon and Des Grieux as a love powerful enough to sweep aside convention and prejudice. Although the subject had already been treated by Auber and, with enormous popularity, by Massenet, Puccini insisted that his Manon would be different: not delicately French, but Italian and genuinely passionate. The result won both public and critics. At thirty-five, Puccini had found his mature voice — a voice of direct emotional force, sensuous melody and orchestral imagination. The opera’s intermezzo distils that mastery into music of remarkable dramatic concentration.