An undocumented immigrant at the Liceu

BarcelonaThe audience that will see Manon Lescaut At the Liceu, you will first encounter a video projection. Manon is an undocumented immigrant crossing a border to reach Europe. She then works in a clandestine garment workshop. With this prologue, stage director Àlex Ollé brings Giacomo Puccini's opera, premiered in 1893 and inspired by the novel, into the present day. The story of the Chevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut (1731), by Abbé Prévost. "It works perfectly," Ollé assured at a press conference this Wednesday. "Manon's great love is that love of someone who doesn't want to give up a better future, and that fits with our version, with an undocumented immigrant girl who enters Europe to meet her brother," he added. In the opera, Manon's brother, Sergeant Lescaut, takes her to a convent in accordance with their father's wishes. Ollé has the parents send a letter to the brother asking him to bring Manon home. Instead of returning, she embarks on the journey of love, ambition, disappointment, deception, escape, and despair that unfolds in the opera's four acts, which the stage director sets in sordid locations, such as a club where Manon works as a stripper and the cells where she awaits deportation.

Ollé's staging was well-received when this production premiered in Frankfurt in 2019, and reviews were particularly complimentary of Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, who will also star in the six performances scheduled at the Liceu from March 17 to April 1. Also returning from Frankfurt are American tenor Joshua Guerrero as Des Grieux, Ukrainian baritone Yurii Samoilov as Lescaut, and Italian bass Donato Di Stefano as Geronte. For Ollé, it is "a privilege" to have the same cast in the principal roles, and especially with Grigorian, "an extraordinary actress." The Liceu audience has already witnessed the Lithuanian soprano's vocal and dramatic talents: she stood out in Demon in 2018 and dazzled in 2025 with a Rusalka which exceeded all expectations: "Beautiful voice, with body, sensitive interpretation, excellent acting performance... and a masterful dancer," as noted by critic Jaume Radigales in the ARA"We are a wonderful family," says Grigorian about the team led by Ollé, set designer Alfons Flores, costume designer Lluc Castells, and maestro Josep Pons, who previously worked with Grigorian at the helm of the Liceu Orchestra. RusalkaThe cast is completed by Filipo Filipović, Álvaro Diana, Mercedes Gancedo, Alessandro Vandin, Leonardo Domínguez, Domingo Ramos, Dimitar Darlev, Pau Bordas, Walter Bartaburu, and Andrea Antognetti; in addition to the Russian tenor Ivan Gyngazov, who will replace Joshua Guerrero, who is recovering from a vocal ailment, in the performances on the 17th and 20th. Precariousness and exploitation

Ollé and Flores, who in the 2024-2025 season brought a magnificent and humid performance to the Liceu opera production Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by ShostakovichThey highlight the precariousness and exploitation faced by many immigrants arriving in Europe. The introduction and staging choices place Manon's story in the present, "a passionate and, at the same time, calculating, visceral and intuitive woman," according to Flores. In the original, Manon is a young French woman from the early 18th century who abandons her lover, Des Grieux, when he runs out of money; who then realizes that being Geronte's courtesan is not her dream; who wants to return to Des Grieux because love is more powerful than money (or so it seems); and who, finally, deceived by Geronte and accused of theft, is tragically deported to French Louisiana, along with Des Grieux. Puccini, of course, reinforced its tragic aspect with arias such as Alone, lost, abandoned.

With this storyline, it's not surprising that Manon Lescaut has received various scenic updates, such as the David Livermore's production that was programmed at the Liceu in 2018Livermore moved the action to the brothels of the late 19th century and also addressed the theme of immigration, with an introduction in which the character of Des Grieux, now elderly, recalls the tragedy of Manon on Ellis Island. "The story of Manon speaks to the experiences of many of our ancestors who were immigrants," Livermore said.