From the 1830s to 1850s, Daniel Auber and his librettist Eugène Scribe were true superstars of French opéra comique. The secret to their success? Stories in which the characters fumble their way through growing adversity, aided by incredible plot twists and turns, set to light-hearted music marked by irresistible melodies. One of the pair’s most enduring successes was their 1856 opera Manon Lescaut, based on the novel by the Abbé Prévost.

As the prurient elements of the story made it unsuitable for the respectable audiences of mid-nineteenth century theatres, Scribe transformed Manon into a frivolous young woman, who sincerely falls in love with Des Grieux but has the misfortune to always find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Manon’s part was written for a coloratura soprano with the bravura to deliver “C’est l’histoire amoureuse,” renowned as the “éclat de rire,” or laughing aria, for it sharp, shrill laughs. The opera and the original novel converge only in their endings, where Manon is deported and dies of hardship in a wasteland—never before had an opéra comique featured such a tragic conclusion.