PUCCINI : MANON LESCAUT

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 8th of January 2017 at 6.04 - 9.20 pm 
Sunday 3rd of April 2016 at 6.04 -9.30 pm
Sunday 5th of July 2015 at 6.03 - 8.15 pm
Sunday 18th of August 2013 at 3.03 - 5.10 pm
Sunday 16th of March 2008 at 3 pm

PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut, an opera in four acts,
based on Abbé Prévost's 1731 novel,
L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut
2017
Manon Lescaut............Anna Netrebko
Des Grieux...................Marcelo Álvarez
Lescaut.........................Christopher Maltman
Geronte de Ravoir........Brindley Sherratt
Edmondo..................... Zach Borichesvsky
Dancing Master........... Scott Scully
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Marco Armiliato 2016 
Manon.......................... Kristine Opolais
Chevalier des Grieux... Roberto Alagna
Lescaut........................ Massimo Cavalletti
Geronte........................ Brindley Sherratt
Edmondo..................... Zach Borichevsky
Innkeeper..................... Philip Cokorinos
Musician...................... Virginie Verrez
Dancing Master........... Scott Scully
Sweeper....................... Andrew Bidlack
Sergeant....................... Brandon Cedel
Naval Captain.............. Richard Bernstein
2015
PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut, an opera in four acts
Manon Lescaut................. Kristine Opolais
Lescaut............................. Markus Eiche
Chevalier des Grieux........ Jonas Kaufmann
Geronte de Ravoir............ Roland Bracht
Edmondo.......................... Dean Power
Innkeeper.......................... Christian Rieger
Singer............................... Okka von der Damerau
Dancing Master................ Ulrich Ress
Lamplighter...................... Alexander Kaimbacher
Sergeant............................ Christoph Stephinger
Naval Captain................... Evgenij Kachurovsky
Bavarian State Opera Chorus & Orch/Alain Altinoglu
2013
PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut, an opera in four acts
Manon.......................... Eva-Maria Westbroek
Lescaut........................ Aris Argiris
Des Grieux................... Brandon Jovanovich
De Ravoir.................... Giovanni Furlanetto
Edmondo..................... Julien Dran
Innkeeper/Sergeant...... Guillaume Antoine
Singer........................... Camille Merckx
Dancing Master/
Lamplighter................. Alexander Kravets
La Monnaie Chorus & Orch/Carlo Rizzi
(recorded in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels by Belgium Radio)
(This would be the one that is set on a railway station, all the way.)

INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO (Italian)

The fateful love affairs of Manon Lescaut who leaves her true love, Des Grieux, for a lavish lifestyle with Géronte de Ravoir and then pays the consequences when she returns to her former love.

I can get quite excited about this one. I have a video-cassette featuring Kiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo, and I own three black discs enshrining the voices of Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano. Helen and I have actually seen it, at the Mercury Theatre in Auckland in 1983 (Jonathan Hardy director, Juan Matteucci conductor). On that occasion we spoke to Matteucci about his professionalism in the midst of a family crisis; I particularly liked the way he inspired the orchestra to produce an exciting account of the intermezzo.

Manon Lescaut (1893) was Puccini's third opera, and it was the third time a composer had set Prévost's novel to music (Auber in 1856, Massenet in 1883).

I have spent this afternoon (in March 2008) with one eye on the cricket match, and with my ears attending to recordings of Puccini's first two operas. We owe a lot to CBS Masterworks for resurrecting them.

Le Villi (1884) has the same story as the ballet Giselle, and it is described as an opera-ballet; it fits on a single 12-inch disc; Placido Domingo and Renata Scotto sing the main roles; Lorin Maazel conducts (he did a Puccini series for CBS; he came back to the NYMetOpera this year for The Valkyrie, remember, after an absence of half a century); Tito Gobbi has the non-singing narrator's part. In Le Villi we meet a composer who gives melody with the melodrama.

Edgar (1889) is a tragedy (and so is its libretto, critics say); the funeral of Edgar takes place at the beginning of the third of the four acts; Toscanini played the funeral march at Puccini's burial ceremony in 1924; but Edgar is not really dead; it is an empty suit of armour in the coffin; he is scheming to be reunited with his beloved Fidelia (not Leonora!), and at the last moment, when it seems they will be united, her rival Tigrana (a veritable tigress) kills Fidelia!

Well, Manon Lescaut has no happy ending: Manon dies of hunger, thirst, and exposure in the wilderness outside New Orleans in America, and (like Edgar) Des Grieux collapses in grief on the body of his beloved.

While her chevalier had been seeking help, Manon had sung her aria "Sola, perduta, abandonnata" (Alone, lost, abandoned). Listen for those words. She follows them with this mournful utterance: "On this vast desert, I am a deserted woman, and I don't want to die." Finally, after a tender duet, she says weakly: "My sins shall disappear into oblivion, but my love shall not die".

Sunday 16th of March 2008
PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut, an opera in four acts
Manon Lescaut............. Karita Mattila
Des Grieux.................... Marcello Giordani
Lescaut......................... Dwayne Croft
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine
 REVIEW (Sarah Noble in Sydney)

Disconnected connections:
PROGRAM
COMPOSER
BACKGROUNDCHARACTERS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE
LIBRETTO (Italian)