In 1731, Antoine François Prévost published his novel L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. It served as the model for every fallen woman story, play, ballet, or opera that succeeded it. Two of the operas based on the novel are in the standard operatic repertory. Massenet’s Manon was up for its second at bat on the Met’s HD series. It was previously telecast in 2012. That show featured Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała as the ill fated lovers.
Today Massenet’s teen age couple was in the throats of Lisette Oropesa and Michael Fabiano. I’ll come back to them and their cohorts in a bit, but first the real story of Manon. Like Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Manon is only 15 at the beginning of the opera. She turns 16 in the second act. Des Grieux is not much older – say 17 or 18. Thus, it would not be accurate to say he’s lost his mind over a pretty girl as he wasn’t in possession of it to begin with. The story can be summed up as – boy meets girl, boy loses girl, they get back together, and she dies. Boy is broken hearted, but there’s always a fresh face, etc, around and boy moves on. Eventually his Dad arranges a marriage and seven children arrive. An even bigger number of mistresses pass through his life. He dies during the reign of Louis XVI. Two of his children have their heads cut off during the Terror. A grandson becomes a Marshall of France under Napoleon. The family continues to this day. What happens after Manon dies is much more interesting than what happened before, but writers and composers lack sufficient imagination to pursue the the real story and we’re stuck with A Tale of Two Teenagers that ends with Manon’s death.
So how was the show? Pretty good. The production is the same one that was seen 7 years ago. Laurent Pelly’s sets are still from Goodwill while the costumes are opulent. The time is still 150 years out of joint, but none of that matters if the singers are up to the mark. At 36 Lisette Oropesa is still young enough to withstand Gary Halvorson’s withering close-ups and still be a convincing Manon. She’s very attractive and very buff. She’s the only opera singer ever to be featured in both Runner’s World and Opera News. She has a luminous full lyric soprano which will likely grow in strength as she matures. She was convincing and impressive as Massenet’s goofy and greedy country girl dazzled by the lures of Paris. But she doesn’t yet inhabit the role as do opera’s greatest artists; she has ample time to get better. Her acting lacked the appearance of spontaneity, great acting is never spontaneous – it just looks like it is. This was especially true in the first act when she overdid the awed teenager schtick.
Michael Fabiano is even younger than Oropesa; he’s 34. He has a lovely lirico-spinto tenor that has all the right notes, but which lacks ardor. His singing of ‘Le rêve’ was delivered blankly without the shading and messa di voce singing it needs for full effect. The more powerful ‘Je suis seul!…Ah! fuyez, douce image’ had all the notes, but only a dollop of the passion the aria requires. His voice remains one of great promise that is yet to be realized.
The best singing of the afternoon came from the Polish baritone Artur Rucinski. His fine lyric baritone was delivered with ease and beauty, too bad Lescaut didn’t have more to sing. On his interval interview he was said to sing at lot of Verdi. I can’t tell from this part whether he’s got the right stuff for the big Verdi baritone roles, but I’d love to hear him in one of them.
The rest of the cast were all up to speed as one would expect from the world’s most important opera company. The dancing as is usual in an opera house was just short of embarrassing. Maurizio Benini Conducted with authority, though the Met Orchestra could likely deliver a fine performance of this familiar work without a conductor. Massenet’s orchestration is always lush, forceful, and effective.
In summary, a good performance of a familiar opera that was not incandescent as was the one delivered by the company in 2012.
Metropolitan Opera House
October 26, 2019
MANON
Jules Massenet–Henri Meilhac/Philippe Gille
Manon……………….Lisette Oropesa
Des Grieux…………..Michael Fabiano
Lescaut……………..Artur Rucinski
Count des Grieux……..Kwangchul Youn
Guillot……………..Carlo Bosi
Brétigny…………….Brett Polegato
Poussette……………Jacqueline Echols
Javotte……………..Laura Krumm
Rosette……………..Maya Lahyani
Innkeeper……………Paul Corona
Guard……………….Mario Bahg
Guard……………….Jeongcheol Cha
Maid………………..Edyta Kulczak
Conductor……………Maurizio Benini
Production…………..Laurent Pelly
Set Designer…………Chantal Thomas
Costume Designer……..Laurent Pelly
Lighting Designer…….Joël Adam
Choreographer………..Lionel Hoche
Associate Director……Christian Räth
Video Director………..Gary Halvorson
