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The Express, June 19, 2014 |
By: William Hartston |
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Puccini: Manon Lescaut, Royal Opera House London, June 17, 2014 |
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'Dodgy' production with magnificent singing
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THE French morality tale is yanked into the modern day with misguided scenes
of reality TV and the sex trade - thank goodness for the impeccable score
and truly exciting singing
Puccini's opera Manon Lescaut has not been
performed at Covent Garden for over 30 years and it is not difficult to see
why. The plot is based on a novel by Antoine-Francois Prévost's which was
not only quite a sensation in its day but had already had at least two other
opera and a ballet based on it.
Puccini had every right to assume
that anyone coming to see it would know the story and would be able to fill
in the narrative gaps in his version. Instead of a connected storyline, we
therefore see each scene as a snapshot in the life of Manon, from convent
girl to lover to courtesan to ultimate degradation and death.
It is
an old-fashioned morality tale, which may have been appropriate to audiences
in the 1890s, but hardly fits today's tastes.
In this new production,
Jonathan Kent, normally one of the most reliable and exciting directors of
opera, tries to bring the story up to date, with the world of reality
television and the sex industry taking the place of the allure of Parisian
society and it just does not work.
At all too many moments, a clash
between what one sees happening on stage and the words being sung just add
to the confusion, and where the final scene is meant to be taking place is
anyone's guess. The programme tells us it is the Californian desert, but it
looks like a motorway flyover and the singers only tell us that it is dry
and dusty.
The production, in short, is dodgy to say the least, but
the singing and the music are magnificent.
With Kristine Opolais in
the title role and Jonas Kaufman as her lover the Chevalier des Grieux, we
are treated to two of the world's finest singers at the height of their
powers not only giving magnificent performances but clearly raising each
other to even greater heights than usual, Opolais is also perhaps the best
looking of all of today's sopranos and is the perfect match for the matinée
idol good looks of Kaufman.
They would look good under any
circumstances, but when they are belting out Puccini's emotional music with
such commitment and perfect delivery, the result is totally gripping.
And then there is Antonio Pappano, conducting the Covent Garden
orchestra in an impeccable reading of the lush score. The music came from
Puccini's early years (This was his first great operatic success) and is
full of both youthful exuberance and clear indications of the talent that
was later to give us such masterpieces as La Bohème, Tosca and Madame
Butterfly.
While those works impress particularly by their
emotionality, Manon Lescaut has a vitality that adds true excitement to the
music.
At the end of the performance at the Royal Opera House, there
was massive applause for Jonas Kaufman, still greater appreciation of
Kristine Opolais, thunderous clapping and foot stamping for Antonio Pappano
and the orchestra, and then a mixture of applause and some booing for the
director.
It was unfair, as he was only trying to find a way to bring
the story up-to-date and fill in the gaps left by Puccini's librettist, but
I can see why the boo-ers felt as they did: it just didn't work.
So
five stars for Kaufman, Opolaid and Pappano, three for Puccini and two for
Jonathan Kent, which averages out at four.
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