NEW YORK—The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Manon Lescaut” ran into a potential snag when tenor Jonas Kaufmann canceled for health reasons. Fortunately, tenor star Roberto Alagna stepped in and generated sparks with soprano Kristine Opolais. Alagna had learned the role about 10 years ago but, in fact, has never before performed it onstage.
“Manon Lescaut,” which was first performed in 1893, was Puccini’s breakthrough work, after which George Bernard Shaw hailed him as the successor to Verdi. Puccini was not intimidated by the fact that the Abbé Prévost novel “L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut” had already been turned into a popular opera by Jules Massenet. Puccini said that his own version would sound more Italian, and he was right, although the two operas remain about equally popular.
