Manon Lescaut, Puccini's first major success, is a work of impassioned emotions based on the 18th-century novel by Abbé Prévost, depicting the doomed infatuation of Chevalier des Grieux for beautiful, funloving Manon. The popularity of Puccini's great masterpiece has never waned and the production at the Chemnitz Opera House was hailed as 'a magnificent event' and 'moments we go to the opera for'.