Amidst all the brouhaha attending the Metropolitan Opera’s opening week, Manon was clearly the sleeper. Sandwiched between the high-profile new Porgy and Bess and the ‘would-he-or-wouldn’t-he’ Domingo Macbeth (in the end he wouldn’t), a revival of Laurent Pelly’s 2012 staging of Massenet’s bittersweet romance looked relatively unassuming on paper. However, with an excellent cast, a stellar turn from a rising star, a smart staging, and a fine reading of the score, Manon most definitely should not be overlooked.

Lisette Oropesa in Manon. All photos © Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Massenet’s five-act take on L’Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, a racy 1731 novel by the Abbé Prévost, is an odd fish. Composed for the Opéra-Comique in 1884, it possesses neither the tragic passion of Puccini’s opera of 10 years down the track, nor can it quite make up its mind whether it’s a romantic comedy that takes a turn for the worse, or a stormy morality tale with sunny spells. Whatever it is, it’s certainly long – a 7:30 show at the Met comes down after 11:30pm – and...