The Metropolitan Opera: Manon Lescaut

Soprano Kristine Opolais sings the title role of the beautiful, fun-loving country girl Manon Lescaut, who transforms herself into a Parisian temptress, while Jonas Kaufmann is the dashing student who desperately woos her in this opera based on the 18th-century novel by Abbé Prévost.

Director Richard Eyre places the action in occupied France in a film noir setting. "Desperate passion" is the phrase Puccini himself used to describe the opera that confirmed his position as the preeminent Italian opera composer of his day.