Manon Lescaut Stream

Conductor.............James Levine
Production............Gian Carlo del Menotti

Manon...................Renata Scotto
Des Grieux...........Plácido Domingo
Lescaut.................Pablo Elvira
Geronte.................Renato Capecchi

Three days ago the Met brought us Massenet's Manon.  Today the Metropolitan Opera streamed Puccini's Manon Lescaut from March 29, 1980.  In the streaming series we have already seen Scotto in La Bohème, 03/15/1977.  In the three years between these broadcasts, she lost weight and looks like we are used to seeing her.  We believe Domingo when he exclaims about her looks.

One cannot help comparing the two operas.  Massenet messes around for quite a while before the train arrives carrying Manon.  Puccini puts the carriage arrival with Manon and the falling in love right at the beginning.  He follows this with a gorgeous tenor aria.  He is the master. 

This opera jumps directly from the escape with Des Grieux to her life in luxury with Geronte.  This Manon is more of a narcissist.  Puccini begins act II with a tremendous aria for the soprano.  This is followed by the madrigal. 

When Cecilia Bartoli recorded the Madrigalist for the Decca recording, of course I bought it.  So this opera plays in my head with Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti.  I love the sound of Pavarotti better than Domingo, but Placido is adorable to watch.

The opera takes place before the French revolution.  Gian Carlo del Monaco is the son of Mario del Monaco and received opera from his father's knee.  He tries to evoke the intended setting, and I find this successful. 

Manon very much wants to have her cake and eat it too.  I always think this opera is much sleazier than the other one, but maybe that's mostly because I've seen Netrebko with all her joie de vivre  in two different productions of the other one.  The music here is gorgeous, but you can't help feeling she gets what she deserves.   Scotto dies in style.

Manon Lescaut in HD

Conductor...............Fabio Luisi
Production..............Richard Eyre

Manon...................Kristine Opolais (soprano)
Des Grieux............Roberto Alagna (tenor)
Lescaut.................Massimo Cavalletti (baritone)
Geronte.................Brindley Sherratt (bass)

I missed the live simulcast of Puccini's Manon Lescaut from the Metropolitan Opera but saw the repeat last night.  Our old movie theater is gone, and we are required to drive a much longer distance.

There were a lot of complaints in the reviews about the look of the production.  I know people who only go to the opera if the costumes look like this:

And hate that it now looks like this:

But if I apply my usual criterion, I must say that for explaining the action, you could not beat this.  Every line of dialog in the complex second act was enacted vividly, clearly and understandably. The bombed out church is a "wasteland" idea is iffy, I admit, but the action in that act is not complex.  She complains that she is lost and abandoned, and she dies.  The actors complained about all the stairs.

It is somewhat shocking that Roberto Alagna has never sung this opera before.  He could not be more perfect.  He projected youthfulness incredibly well and sang up a storm.  Both vocally and dramatically Kristine is more in tune with Jonas, but I must say I loved Alagna and Opolais together.  This pairing will repeat for Madama Butterfly.

The Met will be sorry to lose Fabio Luisi.

Manon Lescaut from Munich

Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Production: Hans Neuenfels

Manon Lescaut: Kristine Opolais (soprano)
Lescaut: Markus Eiche Il (baritone)
Cavaliere Renato Des Grieux: Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Geronte di Ravoir: Roland Bracht (bass)

I didn't mind the production as much as I thought I would.  All that starkness only serves to emphasize how spectacularly wonderful the music was--the conducting, the orchestra, the soloists, Kristine and the ever more wonderful Jonas Kaufmann.  Thank you for bringing me what I wanted.  And thank you for making it even more magnificent than I imagined.
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Pictures of Manon Lescaut

These are photographs of the new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut that is opening on Saturday in Munich.  It is just a tiny bit possible that Kristine is a better choice for this particular production.  For more information see here.

Netrebko Drops Out

According to the Bayerische Staatsoper, Anna Netrebko will not appear there in Manon Lescaut, and has been replaced by Kristīne Opolais, who in turn has been replaced at the Met in La Bohème by Sonya Yoncheva.

From the Bayerische Staatsoper management:  “We would still like to thank Anna Netrebko for deciding at an early stage that, due to differing artistic perspectives on the work, she would prefer to pull out."

She resigned because of the production.  Wow.  This is a different production from the full on pornographic production at the Royal Opera, but we can only speculate that it was similar.  They have chosen to prefer their production to her.  She is easier to replace than it.  A lot of people are going to be angry because this is all sold out.

There are no hints so far of what the production will look like.

Netrebko has agreed to sing Tatiana for them next summer.

P.S.  There is an interview with Hans Neuenfels in the recent Der Spiegel.   Basically he says they have had an artistic disagreement. Neuenfels wants Manon to unambiguously choose between these two widely different lives, the poor student or the rich old man, while Netrebko believes that she holds both ideas dear in her mind at once. Neuenfels ridiculed this idea. Obviously he isn't a woman. He may also never have lived in extreme poverty as Netrebko has. Jonas thinks (other source) that there were language problems between the two of them. Neuenfels wants to make clear that he and Netrebko are not angry with one another.

Manon Lescaut at the Movies

I'm very glad I went to see Manon Lescaut at the movies.  Seeing it up close and personal made the entire production make more sense.  The YT film reviewed here also has no subtitles.  I posted the above picture because this scared me to death.  They are flailing away on the edge of a set where they could easily fall and kill themselves.  The theatrical tension was upstaged by the real tension.

I actually think this production is excellent.  In the now ubiquitous interviews it was discussed why this opera is seldom performed.  The answer seemed true:  it requires the perfect operatic couple.  It has found them in Jonas Kaufmann and Kristīne Opolais.  The camera closeups gave us vivid insight into Manon's ever vacillating moods which reflected beautifully in Kristine's face. 

We also got to see the soft porn aspects of the second scene up close and personal.  Opolais is a very game performer is all I can say.

All in all this is a new level of achievement for filming of an opera.

I am here because of my artistic infatuation with Herr Kaufmann.  Waiting for the opera to begin I was reminded of a German song I have only heard once:  Ich möchte noch einmal verliebt sein.  I would like once again to fall in love.  This is a song of a certain age, an age when one does not so easily fall in love any more.  Opera brings us the semblance of love.  We may imagine love in the feigning of it.  I want to thank both the stars of this opera for the masterful semblance of passion.  It was simply wonderful.
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Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut, soprano: Kristīne Opolais
Lescaut, her brother, baritone: Christopher Maltman
Chevalier des Grieux, tenor: Jonas Kaufmann
Geronte de Ravoir, Treasurer General, bass:  Maurizio Muraro

Conductor:   Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano

I go back and forth about this opera, Puccini's Manon Lescaut.   Manon doesn't seem to get to have any fun in this version of the story.

I saw it in Vienna a few years ago where it was all about couture.  There were dresses in store windows, and the scene where the girls names are called was staged as a fashion show.  The singers were almost incidental, but in spite of that it still had a basic unity.

I don't feel repulsed by this production.  I adored the first scene quite madly.  Street people.  A Manon who actually looks like a school girl.  The most wonderfully handsome des Grieux you've seen.  What's not to like?  It sort of goes down hill after that.  The scene in Geronte's house is a bedroom.  This worked for me.  But why did the bed from the previous scene show up in the scene where Manon is supposed to be getting on the boat?  Remember I'm the person who doesn't want to read explanations of the staging before, during or after.  I think this opera is hard to stage because it's all highlights and no continuity.

At the end they are on a wrecked freeway in Monument Valley which is in Arizona, not Louisiana.  It is however a desert.

We weren't here for the sets.  You will seldom ever see such spectacular casting.  The singing was magnificent.  Kristine almost makes it up to Jonas's level.  The tenor part in this opera is actually more significant than the soprano.  She can get away with rather low levels of intensity, but he must sing full voice almost all the time.  Jonas is simply spectacular, for singing, for acting, for looks, for phrasing, every aspect is absolutely beautiful.  All that big singing is thrilling.

The glorious score grows on me.  See this if you possibly can.

This discussion of the opera is interesting.



I seem to recall commenting on the requirement to sing constantly big and wondering if Jonas could do it.  He seems to be doing fine.
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Netrebko's Manon Lescaut

I am listening to Anna Netrebko sing Manon Lescaut from Rome, and my sense of it is that she has at last arrived where she should always have been.  Gorgeous.  To achieve magnificence it requires only the perfect tenor.  We can keep Muti.

Netrebko News

All the news today is about Anna Netrebko.  The strike at the Rome Opera was averted, to show honor to Muti, and Puccini's Manon Lescaut went on as scheduled.  It, and especially Anna, was a triumph in her role debut.

Then more Netrebko news because she has cancelled all impending performances of Faust, including ROH and Vienna.  She has decided that the role is not for her.  My favorite Faust is still Ailyn, if anyone is looking.  Sonya Yoncheva will replace Netrebko in Vienna.

Opinion portion of item:

After all, why blog if you leave out your opinions?  For some reason that we are not privy to Anna Netrebko has been attempting to learn Leonora-Trovatore, Manon-Manon Lescaut, Marguerite-Faust and Lady Macbeth-Macbeth all at the same time.  One of these things is not like the others, one of these things does not belong.  Hint.  Maria Guleghina has successfully sung 3 of these while the fourth has been most notably performed by Victoria de los Angeles, an astonishingly different style of singer.  Who decides these things?  And why?

Don't you just love YouTube

This is Renata Scotto in Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

This is my favorite Pavarotti

It's from the first act of Manon Lescaut.

Manon Lescaut

While I was in Ohio for Thanksgiving, I watched the first half of the Met version of Puccini's Manon Lescaut on television. I had missed the HD simulcast when it played in theaters last year. Unfortunately for them, this opera is also my favorite recording of Luciano Pavarotti and Mirela Freni. Karita Matilla and Marcello Giordani simply did not hold up by comparison. The Metropolitan Opera production was boring. Matilla punched her high notes in a style that might be fine for Salome but is all wrong for Puccini.

The one redeeming feature is the interview by Renée Fleming, the one where she gets Karita to perform the splits. Amazingly silly!

We switched to watching kiddie cartoons. There were kiddies.


If you want to own a Manon Lescaut, choose this one.

Misc.

La Cieca has a copy of something from The Romantic Revolution. Hear for yourself. Click Who and why. I would be curious to know where he got it, but I don't tell my sources either.

This DVD from Glyndebourne of Manon Lescaut from 1997 is gorgeous. Adina Nitescu and Patrick Denniston, both singers I am unfamiliar with, are excellent. Ignore the opera in a box sets.

He is gorgeous, but I can't find a picture of him.

It was silly to say I was taking time off. Obviously I'm not. I think I'm an addict.
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Manon Lescaut

At last a concept production at the Wiener Staatsoper! I thought I wasn't going to get one. Apparently in Puccini's Manon Lescaut the road to perdition is paved with couture! High fashion will lead you to destruction.

The opening scene where Manon, De Grieux and Germonte all meet takes place in the street in front of a fashion house department store with large windows filled with mannequins dressed to the nines. Thin women in business suits walk by and ogle the outfits in the windows. Manon and De Grieux escape in a Mercedes sedan.

In the second act Manon is seduced by expensive outfits. She longs for both love (good) and fashion (evil). This scene takes place in Germonte's house, and the windows show a view of what might be Central Park.

The concept is best in the third act. Women's names are called to list the women who will be deported to America, thus beginning a parade of high fashion models in designer dresses with their hands handcuffed together in front. Each model does her catwalk strut across the stage, showing off her unique outfit, ending with the traditional wedding dress done in red. How many fetishes does this cover? High fashion leads to crime, prison and handcuffs.

Act IV takes place in the deserted set of Act I with the same windows full of couture. Manon is dying from lack of water, water clearly not provided by high fashion dresses. She dies declaring her love.

Production designer says to self, "I get to do opera productions, but darn, I never get to design my own fashion line. Manon Lescaut is my opportunity." My advice is don't give up your day job. The couture idea works well enough and is just short of completely irrelevant.

Manon Lescaut is Puccini's first big hit, his most lushly romantic opera with some of his most beautiful music, played beautifully by the orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper under the direction of Miguel Gomez-Martinez.

Someday, perhaps soon, Anna will sing this and she will be able to do the supermodel strut, which our excellent soprano, Daniela Dessi, was not. She will also look delicious in the photography scenes. The opera seems to play out in front of the production without paying much attention to it.

In this production Manon sings the madrigal herself when the group of four backup singers appears. Sweet.

Advice for all of them: your voices are right for these roles, but you need to relax into the phrases. Let it flow more easily. The audiences in Vienna are very sophisticated and praise only the very best.

Dirigent Miguel Gomez-Martinez
Inszenierung und Licht Robert Carsen

Manon Lescaut Daniela Dessì
Lescaut Adrian Eröd
Chevalier Renato Des Grieux Fabio Armiliato
Geronte de Ravoir Janusz Monarcha
Edmondo Cosmin Ifrim
Wirt Marcus Pelz

Blogging

I change my mind a lot depending on my mood. Some things are wonderful to hear the first time and become tiring with repetition.

Wonderful for always are...

Pavarotti, Freni and James Levine doing Manon Lescaut. I bought it because Cecilia did a brief solo on it, but it represents Pavarotti at his very best. His singing is very free in this role and very thrilling. Each hearing is more wonderful than the one before.

Bjoerling and de los Angeles in La Boheme. I admired Jussi from the beginning and came to love Victoria as I got older. It is one of the peak opera experiences.

Love and admiration are different emotions, and opera is well designed to arouse both. Love of a particular singer is personal. Admiration is much easier to describe.
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Luciano

To hear a classical singer every bit as immersed in his style of singing, listen to Luciano Pavarotti. Early on he became known as the "King of the high C's" because he had such gorgeous ones. His voice is extremely beautiful, no doubt, but it is his style that interests us. He uses the tools with complete mastery and self-confidence.

He stays with his strengths. Throughout his career he has emphasized Italian repertoire, mainly Verdi, Puccini and the other verismo composers, exactly the repertoire that would show off his particular style of singing.

My favorite recording of him is Puccini's Manon Lescaut with Mirella Freni, also from Modena.

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