The Palau de les Arts presents a 'Hollywood' and colorful production of Massenet's Manon

• Soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Vittorio Grigolo portray Manon and the Chevalier des Grieux

Valencia (6.12.10).- The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía premieres this coming Thursday, December 9, a 'Hollywood' and colorful production of Manon by Jules Massenet.

Patrick Fournillier and Jordi Bernàcer share the musical direction of this co-production of Los Angeles Opera and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, with stage direction by Vincent Paterson.

Patrick Fournillier will lead the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana on December 9, as well as on the 12th, 15th, and 30th of the same month. The French conductor is a leading expert on the French repertoire and co-founder and music director of the Massenet Festival in Saint-Étienne. He also shared the musical direction of this same production of Manon with Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. With Manon, Fournillier will conduct his third production at the Palau de les Arts, following Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac and Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride .

Jordi Bernàcer (Alcoy, 1976) will make his debut in the pit of the Valencian arts center on December 18. Bernàcer, who will be the first Valencian to conduct an opera in the Main Hall of the Palau de les Arts, will also assume the musical direction of Manon on December 21 and 28.

Vincent Paterson draws on iconic film stars like Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe to portray the rise and fall of Manon Lescaut, the character immortalized by Abbé Prévost in his novel *Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut *. The American director and choreographer, who has worked with entertainment icons such as Madonna and Michael Jackson, sets the opera in postwar Paris. Paterson presents a vibrant and cinematic staging that incorporates elements of Hollywood melodrama.

Soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Vittorio Grigolo embody Manon Lescaut and the Knight des Grieux, respectively.

Ailyn Pérez is one of the rising stars of the operatic scene. Her success in La Traviata during a Covent Garden tour of Japan has placed the singer in the international spotlight. The diva of Spanish origin, who is making her Valencia debut as the young Manon, won second prize at Operalia in 2006, a competition promoted by Plácido Domingo and held in Valencia that year.

Vittorio Grigolo performs the role of Chevalier des Grieux following his acclaimed debut in the part at London's Covent Garden. The specialized press hailed the Arezzo-born tenor's performance as "one of the most extraordinary debuts in many years." Grigolo has worked with conductors of the caliber of Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Oren, and Antonio Pappano. He has also launched a promising recording career, already boasting a platinum record. At the Palau de les Arts, he has sung Gounod's Faust , Verdi's La Traviata , and his Requiem .

Artur Ruciński (Lescaut), Raymond Aceto (Count des Grieux), Emilio Sánchez (Guillot de Morfontaine), Andrea Porta (Monsieur de Brétigny), Ekaterina Metlova (Javotte) and Simon Lim (Innkeeper) complete the cast of Manon, which also includes singers from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo: Ilona Mataradze (Poussette), Natalia Lunar (Rosette), Giovanni Tristacci (First Guard), Aldo Heo (Second Guard), Alessandra della Croce (Servant) and Jaehwan Jeong (Seminary Porter).