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Financial Times, June 18, 2014 |
By Richard Fairman |
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Puccini: Manon Lescaut, Royal Opera House London, June 17, 2014 |
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Manon Lescaut, Royal Opera House, London
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Kristine Opolais and Jonas Kaufmann give terrific performances in
Jonathan Kent’s production |
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It is a brave director who tries to update Puccini. For a group of works
commonly (if erroneously) described as “realistic”, Puccini’s operas are
resistant to being uprooted from their original settings – so this new
production of Manon Lescaut takes a big risk in reimagining the opera as a
disturbing tract on sexual exploitation in the modern world.
By and
large the opera profits from it. Manon Lescaut was Puccini’s earliest big
success and its handling of the drama remains fairly crude. The opera has
not been seen at Covent Garden since 1983 and it takes the promise of a pair
of stars – Kristine Opolais and Jonas Kaufmann, both singing their roles for
the first time – to make it a hot ticket.
The director, Jonathan
Kent, is lucky to have them. It is hard to imagine many other singers making
the steamy scenes of life in the sex industry as believable as this pair do.
The high point of Kent’s production comes when Manon is found not ensconced
in the luxurious abode of an aristocratic lover, but taking part in an
R18-rated film watched by a row of old men in dirty raincoats. After that
the problems start when the opera has Manon deported and dying of exposure
in a desert in Louisiana. The best this production can do for a modern
equivalent is to leave her and Des Grieux to expire on a disused flyover. A
photo in the programme suggests they have lost their way somewhere on the A1
near Newcastle – a horrible fate, to be sure, but hardly as desperate as the
original.
By this point it is all up to the singing and the lead
couple do not disappoint. Kaufmann has done nothing better than this
charismatic Des Grieux at the Royal Opera and his dark, brooding tenor sings
with unstinting passion and vocal freedom. Opolais, with her shining,
slimmer soprano tone, has the intensity to match him as Manon. Christopher
Maltman turns Lescaut into a bullish young pup and Maurizio Muraro retains
his dignity when Geronte is revealed as the porn film director. With Antonio
Pappano getting the Royal Opera orchestra to play as if their lives depended
on it, the musical performance set the stage on fire. Future revivals will
miss Opolais and Kaufmann. Probably best to catch this Manon Lescaut now
while it is still ablaze.
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