Metropolitan
Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat B121, $104.50.)
Story. See previous blog. I would add Manon was only 16 when she was
introduced in this opera.
Conductor –
Emmanuel Villaume; Guillot de Mortontaine – Christopher Mortagne, de Bretigny –
Dwayne Croft, Lescaut – Michael Todd Simpson, Manon Lescaut – Diana Damrau,
Chevalier des Grieux – Vittorio Grigolo,
Count des Grieux – Nicolas Teste.
We last saw this
opera in 2010, in Australia, and once at the Met before my blogging days, so it wasn’t in my original season
subscription. With our travels – some last
minute, unscheduled – we ended up getting tickets for this show. I was quite okay to do it again since Damrau
and Grigolo are playing the lead.
Let me first say
this was an enjoyable performance. We
have heard Damrau several times before and admired her singing. She seemed to be holding back a bit during
the beginning acts, but her singing improved as the performance went on. In the Playbill she talks about the need to
conserve her voice for the more challenging arias in the later acts. Indeed she managed to sound fresh for the more demanding passages towards the end.
My only prior exposure to Grigolo was a Youtube video of him in a
Salzburg Festival performance of La Traviata, opposite Anna Netrebko. I was quite impressed with how well he did,
although I attributed some of that to the engineering of the video. He was equally impressive tonight, and he
didn’t seem to need to hold anything back at the beginning. Of course I cannot tell how difficult the two
parts are relative to each other. Others
did quite well also – actually I don’t remember any weakness in the
singing. The trio of Mireille Asselin,
Cecelia Hall and Maya Lahyani (as Posette, Javotte, and Rosette) was
particularly entertaining, playing the role of gold-diggers very well.
The sets were
perhaps a bit too clever. For both the
first and last acts small houses were “glued” onto other parts of the sets,
probably in an attempt to portray the vastness of the town and the length of
the road. The end result was just
strange. The sets for the other three
acts (Act 3 has two scenes) were more traditional. The sets are quite large as they have to
accommodate large choruses. I find the
Chapel St. Sulpice particularly impressive, with the many chairs that were set
up in the sanctuary.
The chorus had
quite a bit of singing to do and put in its usual competent renditions. The orchestra played well, adding a lot to
the mood as events took place on stage.
I wish I had caught more of the musical moments described in the
Playbill; I suspect that would take multiple, careful meetings.
The story is
still a bit sketchy in that lots of things “happen offstage.” Having read the Program Notes (on the web)
ahead of time, it made more sense today.
Still it was a bit difficult to sympathize with Manon even though she
dies at the end. Nonetheless, the death
scene was better than I remembered it. I
called that scene “drawn out” in my writeup on the Opera Australia performance,
I definitely didn’t feel that way tonight.
I found this
performance more enjoyable than the Opera Australia one – and I enjoyed
that one also. Many factors contributed
to this evaluation, and I am sure the singing is at the top of the list. I do wish there are more singable tunes,
though.
The New YorkTimes review characterizes this revival as “sensational.” The reviewer attributes what I call Damrau's improvement during the show to the maturing of the character. In any case, this is one of the more easily enjoyable
operas this season, and it is both troubling and puzzling the number of empty
seats today. An interesting fact, Nicolas Teste (playing Count des Grieux) is Damrau's husband.
We stopped by
Jersey City to spend some time with Reid before we headed to the city. Dinner was purchased at Anne’s “favorite”
street vendor. On our way back, our GPS
routed us through Holland Tunnel. It is
good we took the route as there was a detour at the Lincoln Tunnel helix.
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