Metropolitan Opera (live broadcast), 26/10/2019
Massenet : Manon
Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Maurizio Benini
Laurent Pelly's 2012 production of Massenet's Manon for the Metropolitan Opera is an odd, grim affair. He updates it to c. 1900, the Belle Epoque, and that's perfectly reasonable. That was the hey-day of the grandes horizontales, the great courtesans like Liane de Pougy or Caroline Otéro, who were celebrities, pin-ups, and the influencers of their day. To fit Manon Lescaut into that mould functions perfectly well, and it crystallises Pelly's thought that the objectifying gaze of a male-dominated world has changed very little through the centuries. The chorus looks as if it's divided two men to one woman (I'm not quite certain, but I thought that there were some women dressed as men, at least in Act 3.i, in order to swell the numbers), so many black crows against which the women gleamed in white or shades of pink. At the start of the St. Sulpice scene, Pelly inverts the position, with the female faithful all in black, watching Des Grieux as avidly as the men watch Manon.
However, the staging is bleak and cold, perspectives increasingly skewed as the show goes on, with no atmosphere worth mentioning. The Hôtel de Transylvanie, which is supposed to be a swanky gaming club, was particularly drab. The only set I actually liked was the last one, with the grey sky-over-sea backdrop at the end of the road to Le Havre. The rest felt oppressive, which was maybe Pelly's wish, in keeping with the constant sense of observation, or spying, going on, but I felt it had negative effects on the music.
For this was one of those curious, frustrating affairs where everything is well done, but never quite comes alive, and in Manon - especially a very complete Manon, including the ballet, which I have never seen before - you really need that extra spark to get you through it. It's not a short opera, and if you're not gripped by the performance, the inevitable comparison with Puccini, nine years later, tips heavily in favour of the Italian, for having stripped out so much more or less extraneous material. On the other hand, Massenet is much more faithful to the Abbé Prévost's novel, and it's a portrait of a society too, which clearly is something Pelly wanted to reflect in his own way. The result, however, at least tonight, was too artificial, and carried very little emotional weight.
A significant part of that problem lay with Maurizio Benini. Benini is a bel canto specialist, particularly insightful with Donizetti or Bellini. Massenet seems like an odd choice for him, and I don't feel that it paid off. The playing from the orchestra was sumptuous, everything in place, quality of sound excellent, brisk tempi (again, very useful in a long opera), but it didn't sound French, and it didn't sound sincere. The most egregious example was in the last scene, when a barely conscious Manon suddenly realises that it is Des Grieux before her. Of course there's an orchestral outburst, but this one was a split second late, and almost completely without impact. Without that lift from the orchestra, the singers tend to struggle to bring the characters to life.
Lisette Oropesa has an undeniably good vocal command of the role. One or two of the very top notes (but we're talking high D's here!) were a touch squally, but the coloratura side was generally very well executed, while she had the warmth and depth of timbre for the more intimate music as well. She did come across, after the first act, as a particularly scheming Manon, and I'm not sure whether that was an effect of the production or her own reading of it. I'm not fond of that sort of Manon, to me she's someone who lives in the instant, and believes in that instant wholeheartedly, however, I accept the validity of other readings. There was, however, little real vulnerability to her Manon, and far too much arm-waving! Michael Fabiano brought his characteristic earnestness to Des Grieux, though not a great deal of beauty of tone, and he tended to overpower Oropesa in the early duets, though by the end the balance evened out, but again, there was little charm to the character.
Neither of them (and I know Fabiano can do better) offered particularly clear French; the vowel sounds were acceptable, but intelligibility was only intermittent. That said, this was a problem for the entire cast and the chorus, the standard of French was startlingly mediocre, I've heard the Met as a whole do much better than this. The one who had perhaps the best reason for poor French was the Polish baritone Artur Ruciński, whose Lescaut was otherwise the liveliest character on stage, ebullient and irrepressible. Too much vibrato made Kwangchul Youn's Comte des Grieux a little uncomfortable, but Brett Polegato (De Brétigny) and Carlo Bosi (Guillot de Morfontaine) were strong in their supporting roles.
An accomplished performance, therefore, but never really touching the heart of the work.
[Next : 1st November]
Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Maurizio Benini
Laurent Pelly's 2012 production of Massenet's Manon for the Metropolitan Opera is an odd, grim affair. He updates it to c. 1900, the Belle Epoque, and that's perfectly reasonable. That was the hey-day of the grandes horizontales, the great courtesans like Liane de Pougy or Caroline Otéro, who were celebrities, pin-ups, and the influencers of their day. To fit Manon Lescaut into that mould functions perfectly well, and it crystallises Pelly's thought that the objectifying gaze of a male-dominated world has changed very little through the centuries. The chorus looks as if it's divided two men to one woman (I'm not quite certain, but I thought that there were some women dressed as men, at least in Act 3.i, in order to swell the numbers), so many black crows against which the women gleamed in white or shades of pink. At the start of the St. Sulpice scene, Pelly inverts the position, with the female faithful all in black, watching Des Grieux as avidly as the men watch Manon.
However, the staging is bleak and cold, perspectives increasingly skewed as the show goes on, with no atmosphere worth mentioning. The Hôtel de Transylvanie, which is supposed to be a swanky gaming club, was particularly drab. The only set I actually liked was the last one, with the grey sky-over-sea backdrop at the end of the road to Le Havre. The rest felt oppressive, which was maybe Pelly's wish, in keeping with the constant sense of observation, or spying, going on, but I felt it had negative effects on the music.
 |
| Manon Act 4, Scene 1, Hôtel de Transylvanie Upstage centre, Lisette Oropesa (Manon), Front and right, Michael Fabiano (Des Grieux) (© Metropolitan Opera, New York, 2019) |
For this was one of those curious, frustrating affairs where everything is well done, but never quite comes alive, and in Manon - especially a very complete Manon, including the ballet, which I have never seen before - you really need that extra spark to get you through it. It's not a short opera, and if you're not gripped by the performance, the inevitable comparison with Puccini, nine years later, tips heavily in favour of the Italian, for having stripped out so much more or less extraneous material. On the other hand, Massenet is much more faithful to the Abbé Prévost's novel, and it's a portrait of a society too, which clearly is something Pelly wanted to reflect in his own way. The result, however, at least tonight, was too artificial, and carried very little emotional weight.
A significant part of that problem lay with Maurizio Benini. Benini is a bel canto specialist, particularly insightful with Donizetti or Bellini. Massenet seems like an odd choice for him, and I don't feel that it paid off. The playing from the orchestra was sumptuous, everything in place, quality of sound excellent, brisk tempi (again, very useful in a long opera), but it didn't sound French, and it didn't sound sincere. The most egregious example was in the last scene, when a barely conscious Manon suddenly realises that it is Des Grieux before her. Of course there's an orchestral outburst, but this one was a split second late, and almost completely without impact. Without that lift from the orchestra, the singers tend to struggle to bring the characters to life.
Lisette Oropesa has an undeniably good vocal command of the role. One or two of the very top notes (but we're talking high D's here!) were a touch squally, but the coloratura side was generally very well executed, while she had the warmth and depth of timbre for the more intimate music as well. She did come across, after the first act, as a particularly scheming Manon, and I'm not sure whether that was an effect of the production or her own reading of it. I'm not fond of that sort of Manon, to me she's someone who lives in the instant, and believes in that instant wholeheartedly, however, I accept the validity of other readings. There was, however, little real vulnerability to her Manon, and far too much arm-waving! Michael Fabiano brought his characteristic earnestness to Des Grieux, though not a great deal of beauty of tone, and he tended to overpower Oropesa in the early duets, though by the end the balance evened out, but again, there was little charm to the character.
Neither of them (and I know Fabiano can do better) offered particularly clear French; the vowel sounds were acceptable, but intelligibility was only intermittent. That said, this was a problem for the entire cast and the chorus, the standard of French was startlingly mediocre, I've heard the Met as a whole do much better than this. The one who had perhaps the best reason for poor French was the Polish baritone Artur Ruciński, whose Lescaut was otherwise the liveliest character on stage, ebullient and irrepressible. Too much vibrato made Kwangchul Youn's Comte des Grieux a little uncomfortable, but Brett Polegato (De Brétigny) and Carlo Bosi (Guillot de Morfontaine) were strong in their supporting roles.
An accomplished performance, therefore, but never really touching the heart of the work.
[Next : 1st November]