After the great success of Jules Massenet’s opera of the same name, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) also set the well-known material of Abbé Prévost to music in 1892: compared to the French-language version, he wanted to write the opera in the Italian manner, full of passion and with great despair. That he succeeded in this was attested to by an enthusiastic audience that attended the premiere at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Even today, critics attest Puccini’s masterpiece an enormous power of suggestion. With "Manon Lescaut" Puccini had also cemented his international reputation as a recognized composer. For the dramatic death scene in the finale, he created a somber and harrowing emotional world that he was never to achieve again on such a high scale. In addition, "Manon Lescaut" is characterized by an abundance of new melodies and motifs that have eternal value in their ingenuity and musical beauty. The six extremely varied solo pieces for Des Grieux alone are among the most demanding tenor parts Puccini ever wrote. The characteristically immature figure of Manon contrasts with his later title heroines in that she lacks inner stability and is guided not only by love but also by base motives such as greed, avarice and ostentation.