Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

impending incarceration; and the brother, Lescaut, is also reluctant to throw so fair a life away. He
therefore determines to disobey his instructions, and to use Manons beauty as a means for securing
wealth for them both. To this end he encourages the attentions of Geronte de Ravoir, a rich old
libertine, who has travelled with them in the diligence, and is so attracted by Manons loveliness
that he desires to possess her; and he invites the pair to join him at supper. Des Grieux,
meanwhile, has found means to speak with Manon, and is overjoyed to find in her an answering
sympathy, which also quickly develops into love, and he secures her promise to meet him a little
later. The old roué, Geronte, now determines to elope with Manon that evening, and he arranges
with the landlord of the inn to have a postchaise in readiness at a certain hour. He is pleased on
presently seeing Lescaut closely engaged in gambling with some of the students, and he
endeavours to keep him thus occupied, so that he may abduct Manon the more readily. His
arrangements, however, have been overheard by a friendly student, Edmond, who, having noticed
the quick passion which has sprung up between Des Grieux and Manon, at once informs the
former of the proposed abduction, and advises him to run off with the maiden first, making use of
the carriage which will be in waiting. When Manon presently appears, therefore, Des Grieux
entreats her to fly with him to Paris, and thus escape the convent and also the clutches of the
elderly beau into whose arms she is likely to be driven by her unscrupulous brother; and upon
Manon, after some hesitation, accepting, the lovers jump into the waiting postchaise and drive off,
leaving the deserted Geronte and Lescaut speechless with fury. The latter, however, knowing well
his fair sisters passionate love of luxury and hatred of poverty, bids Geronte not despond, since
Manon may yet be won by him when her student lovers slender means have been spent; and in Act
3 his selfish schemes have triumphed, and Manon is shown living as the mistress of Geronte in a
sumptuous house and surrounded by all the luxuries and extravagances which her pleasure-loving
soul craves for. She has been thus tempted to leave the humble cottage in which she has lived a
short, happy time with the devoted Des Grieux; but in spite of her every whim being gratified by
her elderly admirer, she still loves Des Grieux and pines for him. Lescaut knows this and is
disturbed, not desiring to lose the means of gratifying his own low tastes and love of gambling
which his sisters luxury affords him the means to do; and he therefore seeks out Des Grieux, and
encourages him to gamble desperately and thus secure the wealth which will enable him to win
back the radiant Manon, whom he still so fondly loves. He even arranges an interview between the
pair; but dire misfortune comes of this. As Manon and Des Grieux embrace one another on the
latters arrival at the roués hotel they are interrupted by Geronte himself, who is furious at the sight,
and in revenge he at once denounces Manon to the authorities, and she is condemned to
deportation. Lescaut, for his own selfish ends, endeavours to save her from her awful fate, but he
is unsuccessful. Des Grieux is overcome with grief and despair at the fate which awaits his
beloved one, and rather than be parted from her, when the last chance of rescue has vanished, he
offers himself as a cabin-boy on the vessel which conveys her to America. But even here fate is
still against the lovers, and Manon and Des Grieux are compelled to make a sudden, hurried flight
to escape a worse dan-ger. In the last act they are shown as fugitives in a vast, solitary wilderness,
far from human habitation and aid, and here Manon sinks to the ground dying from exhaustion.
Des Grieux vainly seeks water and refreshment to save her life, but Manon, knowing herself to be
past human aid, calls him to her side once more, and folded in his embrace she expires, declaring
her love for him with her last breath. As the curtain descends, Des Grieux, with a cry of woe, falls
senseless beside the dead body of his beloved Manon-that Manon so fair and so alluring; such a
bewildering contrast of passionate love and dainty coquetry, a sunshine-loving butterfly, with the
heart of a true woman.