Review: Manon!, Opera’s Have-It-All Girl

The idea that you can have it all is not just a fantasy peddled by manic American executives hawking books in the business section of Barnes & Noble. It is the inevitable byproduct of a society of abundance, in which wealth is ostentatiously flaunted before the striving class. If they only reach just a little bit farther, maybe they can grasp it.

If that image resonates, Heartbeat Opera has a story for you with its marvelously performed and mercifully abridged English-language production of Jules Massenet’s Manon!, now performing at the Space at Irondale. Lean in, ladies. We’re going on a ride.

The scene opens with Manon (Emma Grimsley) admiring six chandeliers dangling just above the wide thrust stage, creating a crystal playground for the wealthy banker Guillot (Glenn Seven Allen) and his courtesans (the hilarious Kathryn McCreary and Natalie Walker seem to be having the most fun as a pair of cackling hookers). Convent-bound on this first trip away from home, Manon is dazzled by the sights and sounds of 18th-century France.

Guillot takes one look at her and knows he must have her, which her cousin Lescaut (Jamari Darling) clocks as a major financial opportunity—if he can deliver. But when Manon crosses paths with the handsome young Chevalier Des Grieux (Matt Dengler), it’s love at first sight. They abscond to Paris (in Guillot’s coach!) to live happily, if meagerly. But like Parker Posey in The White Lotus, Manon knows that she’s not meant for a life of discomfort, no matter how well-loved she might will be.

Librettists Jacob Ashworth (the artistic director of Heartbeat) and Rory Pelsue (director of this production) condense all five acts of Manon and Des Grieux’s on-again, off-again romance into a lively 100 minutes (the original libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille). “Goodbye, our favorite little table,” Manon sings in one of the more notable arias, “You knew we didn’t need too much. / You were just big enough for us: / I’d sit here, he’d kiss me, we’d touch.” It’s not a Shakespearean sonnet, but it gets the job done without the need for supertitles, thanks in part to Ryan Gamblin’s beautifully balanced sound design.

Promotional material from Heartbeat Opera describes this as a “musical theater revamp” of Manon! (the exclamation point is theirs). But despite the way our protagonist rhymes “alarming” with “charming” in what feels like a first act “I want” song, the connection to Golden Age Broadway is tenuous. This is undeniably opera, but accessible for viewers who might not consider themselves opera people.

As he so often does, music director Dan Schlosberg delivers rich, meaty orchestrations for a band of eight, which includes a surprisingly muscular woodwinds section and a harp. Seated at the keyboard facing away from the stage, he holds the orchestra and musicians together in a perfectly paced interpretation.

The singers are excellent, alloying strong vocal performances with memorable acting choices. Allen luxuriates in his role as a finance bro who refuses to grow up. Darling vogues across the stage at the top of the third act as the archetypal amoral homosexual attaching himself to a corrupt court. And Justin Lee Miller is the powerful baritone of authority as the Chevalier’s father, the Count.

We wonder how this harsh man sired such a sweet and sensitive son. Dengler’s portrayal of the Chevalier overflows with boyish sincerity. He’s the kind of guy who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still believes that #LoveWins. Even if he reddens in the face as he reaches the very ceiling of his range (without ever cracking on the highest notes), it just shows how brave he is willing to be to win Manon’s love—even as we begin to suspect she doesn’t deserve it.

With a lustrous soprano emanating from her tiny, hungry mouth, Grimsley captures the restless spirit of a woman who sees what is possible in the world and wants the best of it for herself. It is possible to admire Manon’s chutzpah while being completely baffled by the spell she seems to cast over the heterosexual male population. It was obvious to me that her most lasting fidelity was to the lighting fixtures.

The chandeliers, the central element of Alexander Woodward’s set, ascend and descend with Manon’s fortunes in a lovely DIY nod to the Met. Lighting designer Yichen Zhou makes them sparkle and change colors with just a handful of LEDs and gelled Lekos, bathing our heroine in a soft incandescence that usually requires a much bigger budget.

Costume designer David Mitsch also knows how to stretch a sou, fancying up Temu shoes with buckles to effectively, if anachronistically, convey an 18th-century look— although, the choice to feature the three female cast members in their frilly tulle undergarments feels like poverty masquerading as poignancy (something something about the patriarchy).

But Heartbeat Opera proves that you don’t need a Lincoln Center budget to mount vital, magnificently performed opera that speaks to us in 2026. As we in snowy Brooklyn peer mesmerized into our screens at filtered, AI-modified images of beautiful rich people on the beach enjoying what seems to be permanent vacation, I cannot help but suspect that we’ve all become Manon, just without the gumption to take what we really desire.