Jenna Robertson / Soprano

Alex Raineri / Piano

Live performance from the 2020 Brisbane Music Festival 'Streamed Series'.

Jai Farrell / Audio Engineer & Videographer

Jules Massenet’s most popular and enduring work 'Manon' is a comic opera in five acts, set to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille which is based on the 1731 novel ‘L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut’ by the Abbé Prévost. Manon tells the story of an impulsive young woman who is drawn into a world of male desire. She recklessly chooses luxury over love and, in doing so, pays the ultimate price. The famously heartbreaking aria 'Adieu notre petite table' (Farewell, our little table) accounts Manon’s struggle between prioritizing her honest love for Des Grieux against the prospect of a glamorous future. Choosing the latter, she is overwhelmed by melancholy and bids ‘adieu’ to her little table (representing the humble nature of her present situation).