Along with the operas of Tenerife and Oviedo, the Theater will present a new production of Manon that will also mark the return to the pit of the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra, whose baton will alternate between Maximiano Valdés and Pedro-Pablo Prudencio. In addition to the Spanish stage director Emilio Sagi, the artistic profile of this drama of innocence and corruption will feature Daniel Bianco, on stage; Pablo Núñez, in the locker room; and Eduardo Bravo, in lighting. The main roles will be played by Sabina Puértolas and Annya Pinto, who will play Manon Lescaut; Galeano Salas and Andrés Presno, as Knight Des Grieux; and Manel Esteve and Ramiro Maturana (Lescaut).

For the first time since 2019, the Municipal Theater of Santiago will premiere a staged opera as part of its artistic season. They are Manon, by the French composer Jules Massenet and the librettists Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. But this will not be the only milestone: the Municipal de Santiago will present the work in co-production with the Ópera de Tenerife and the Ópera de Oviedo, in an international effort that will later allow it to tour Europe.

A proposal that will also be made as a tribute to Emilio Sagi, who returns to the Municipal de Santiago to work on the stage direction of a drama that he has defined as “innocence and corruption”, where the young Manon oscillates between passion and the wealth.

In the cast, the main roles will be performed by prominent national and international lyrical singers: the sopranos Sabina Puértolas (Spain) and Annya Pinto (Chile), in the role of Manon Lescaut; tenors Galeano Salas (Mexico/United States) and Andrés Presno (Uruguay), playing Caballero Des Grieux; and the baritones Manel Esteve (Spain) and Ramiro Maturana (Chile), as Lescaut.

“With this project, ambitious and beautiful, we return to the staged opera. And we are not alone in this project, but in collaboration with two Spanish theaters: the Oviedo Opera and the Tenerife Opera. This co-production allows us to make the Municipal Theater of Santiago visible in other places, as well as the work of its production teams. Manon also marks the return of an artist loved and respected by the Chilean public, Emilio Sagi”, says Carmen Gloria Larenas, general director of the Municipal Theater of Santiago.

“I wanted to set this opera in its original time; in the France of the last years of Louis XV and the first years of Louis XVI in which there was no morality. I wanted to do the drama of that small-town girl who never had anything and who is suddenly put in front of her by a corrupt society that offers her great luxuries with which she loses her mind. Manon is wonderful because her main character loves in an absolutely passionate way and I am very happy to return to the Municipal de Santiago with a work that I love so much, ”says Emilio Sagi on her part.

Manon will also have Daniel Bianco in her technical file, on stage; Pablo Núñez, in the locker room; and Eduardo Bravo, in lighting, who will be in charge of setting it in the luxurious Versalles, with an easy and light life. While the music will be performed by the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra, whose baton will alternate between Maximiano Valdés and Pedro-Pablo Prudencio, in what will be the return of this musical body to the pit after the end of the sanitary measures implemented by the pandemic. Also, the Choir of the Municipal of Santiago will have the direction of Jorge Klastornick.

The cast of Manon is completed by Homero Pérez-Miranda and Sergio Gallardo (Count Des Grieux), Gonzalo Araya (Guillot-Morfontaine), Patricio Sabaté and Javier Weibel (Monsieur de Brétigny), Andrea Aguilar and Tabita Martínez (Poussette), Marcela González and Camila Guggiana (Rosette), Evelyn Ramírez and Camila Aguilera (Javotte), David Gáez (Innkeeper / Porter Saint Sulpice / Croupier), Ismael Correa and Nicolás Noguchi (Guard/Player) and Paola Rodríguez (A maid).