Lisette Oropesa and Michael Fabiano star in Massenet’s Manon, opening September 24

Lisette Oropesa and Michael Fabiano star in Massenet’s Manon, opening September 24

• Laurent Pelly’s production, conducted by Maurizio Benini, also stars

Artur Ruciński and Kwangchul Youn

• Manon will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world on

Saturday, October 26, as part of The Met: Live in HD series

 New York, NY (September 23, 2019)—The Metropolitan Opera presents one of Massenet’s most popular operas, Manon, September 24 to October 26, 2019. Making her role debut as the title heroine is American soprano Lisette Oropesa, who won both the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award and the Richard Tucker Award earlier this year. Michael Fabiano—a fellow winner of both the Sills and Tucker prizes—co-stars as Manon’s lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, alongside Artur Ruciński as Manon’s cousin Lescaut and Kwangchul Youn as the Chevalier’s father, the Comte des Grieux. Carlo Bosi, as Guillot de Morfontaine, and Brett Polegato, in his Met debut as de Brétigny, round out the principal cast. Maurizio Benini conducts Laurent Pelly’s production, which transports the action from its original 18th-century setting to the Belle Époque era of late 19th-century Paris.

Manon Worldwide Broadcasts in Cinema, Radio, and Online

The performance of Manon on Saturday, October 26, will be transmitted live to more than 2,200 movie theaters in more than 70 countries as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. The broadcast will be hosted by soprano Nadine Sierra, who will star as Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro later this season at the Met.

The September 24 performance of Manon will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 75, and the October 26 performance will be taped and broadcast over the Toll Brothers–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network on February 15, 2020.

Manon Artist Biographies

A graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Lisette Oropesa has sung more than 120 performances of 15 roles with the company, including Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Sophie in Massenet’s Werther, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Miranda in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island, Woglinde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Earlier this year, she sang the title role in Handel’s Rodelinda at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, took the role of Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable at La Monnaie in Brussels, and sang Amalia in a new production of Verdi’s I Masnadieri for her debut at La Scala. She is the winner of the Met’s 2019 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. Later this season, in February and March 2020, she returns to the Met stage as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata.

American tenor Michael Fabiano adds a new role to his Met repertory as des Grieux, a role he has previously sung at San Francisco Opera. He was a winner of the Met’s National Council Auditions in 2007 and made his Met debut in 2010 as Raffaele in Verdi’s Stiffelio. His other performances with the company include the Verdi roles of Cassio in Otello and Alfredo in La Traviata, as well as Alfred in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor,Faust in Boito’s Mefistofele, and Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème. He is the winner of the Met’s 2014 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the 2014 Richard Tucker Award. Later this season, he sings the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo at Paris Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Italian tenor Carlo Bosi makes his Met role debut as Guillot de Morfontaine. He made his Met debut in 2013 as Dr. Caius in the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Falstaff. Last season at the Met, he sang the Abbé in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Nick in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, both of which were seen in cinemas around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series. Other recent performances include Goro in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, L’Incredibile in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, and Dr. Caius at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca at Paris Opera; and L’Incredibile at La Scala. Later this season, he sings Spoletta at La Scala and reprises Goro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Polish baritone Artur Ruciński makes his Met role debut as Lescaut. He made his company debut in the 2015–16 season, singing Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly followed by performances last season as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata. Notable performances with other opera companies include Verdi roles such as Paolo in Simon Boccanegra at La Scala, Ford in Falstaff at Oper Frankfurt, Miller in Luisa Miller at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore at the Salzburg Festival. Also this season at the Met, he sings Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème,a role he has previously sung at Paris Opera and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. 

Canadian baritone Brett Polegato makes his Met debut as de Brétigny. He has been seen around the world in roles such as Dr. Joseph Talbot in the European premiere of William Bolcolm’s Dinner at Eight at Wexford Festival Opera, Zurga in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Seattle Opera, Kurwenal in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and the title roles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Canadian Opera Company. Last season, he sang Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Irish National Opera and Howie Albert in the Canadian premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion at Opéra de Montréal.

South Korean bass Kwangchul Youn adds a new role to his Met repertory as Comte des Grieux. Following his company debut in 2004 in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, he has performed Narbal in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Talbot in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and Frère Laurent in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. This season, he also sings Abimélech in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Jacopo Fiesco in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal at Hamburg State Opera.

Italian conductor Maurizio Benini made his Met debut in 1998 leading Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Some of his notable performances conducting at the Met include Rossini’s Semiramide and Le Comte Ory, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Gounod’s Faust, Bellini’s Norma and I Puritani, and the Met premieres of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux. He has led performances at opera houses around the world, including Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

For More Information

For further details on Manon, including casting by date, please click here.

Manon

Music by Jules Massenet

Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille

Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 28 at 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 5 at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, October 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 26 at 1:00 p.m.

^*Met debut 

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse 

Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund     

For prices and ticket information, please call (212) 362-6000 or visit metopera.org.

Special rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling (212) 341-5410 or visiting metopera.org/groups.