Among the composer's oeuvre, Manon Lescaut is the opera that cemented Puccini's stellar reputation among his fellow composers. It was believed to be the artist's most successful work during his lifetime. Manon Lescaut owes its success mainly to the different portrayal of its main heroine, who is no longer a loose creature but rather a sensitive woman in love who ends tragically.

WINGS WEAKEN UNDER THE WEIGHT OF GOLD – CATERPILLARIZATION OF THE BUTTERFLY
Director’s Notes
Manfred Schweigkofler

The tragic story depicts our protagonist, Manon Lescaut, as she develops from a magnificent butterfly into a caterpillar. We are witnessing a reversal of the traditional metamorphosis: from a seductive, beautiful and very natural young woman, Manon transforms into a broken, miserable creature.

At the beginning of the opera, the young woman is overflowing with joy and desire for freedom; she is determined, full of strength and refuses to conform to social norms; she tries to shape her life according to her desires and takes her fate into her own hands. To avoid the forced commitment to a convent, she flees with Des Grieux, and we experience her as an entirely autonomous person.

We then follow her on a journey from splendour to misery: when she leaves Des Grieux in the opera's second act, she lives as Geronte's mistress in wealth and luxury, enjoying the leisurely life that her new role allows her. In this phase, she shines like a butterfly in the sunlight, surrendering herself to a seemingly carefree life. But the butterfly appears too chichi - its wings are weakening under the weight of gold, and it cannot fly.

Manon decides to leave Geronte and return to Des Grieux; after she gets arrested and exiled, her life changes radically. She ends up in the wilderness of Louisiana, far from her former luxurious life. Only a pale shadow of the former Manon, she is now physically and emotionally broken, vulnerable, helpless and utterly desperate. In extreme conditions, her life is reduced to mere survival; she loses her freedom and autonomy over her destiny; she loses her future, hope and joy. She fights for her bare life until she eventually dies in the desert.

We also witness her moral decline. Although at the beginning of the opera, Manon chooses to pursue her desires for a better life, she appears innocent and attractive. Her motives are sincere, and her love for Des Grieux seems genuine. As the opera progresses, however, her decisions increasingly undermine her moral values. The decision to leave Geronte and return to Des Grieux and the following consequences reveal her inner struggle and moral decay. Her choices eventually lead to regret and existential anxiety as she realises the ominous impetuosity of her actions. In the fourth act, Manon is surrounded by her lost life, and as she begs for a sip of water, we sense that even if she were to return to life, she would never be able to transform into a lovely butterfly again. Her colours fade, and she dies under the bitter rain of her life.
The story of Manon Lescaut is thus a tragic downward spiral, a path of loss of wealth, independence, moral compass, and ultimately life itself. The progression in the opposite direction emphasises the ruinous nature of her character and puts at the forefront of the opera the dramatic themes of loss, despair and inevitable fate. The metaphor of the regression from the butterfly into the caterpillar is also omnipresent in my staging.