Ermonela Jaho has quickly become a house favourite, a reputation initially gained by subbing for various ailing sopranos until she is now invited in her own right. I had not heard her live before the performance but was greatly impressed by her performance as Suor Angelica which I caught when broadcast on the BBC. So all in all this had all the makings of a great night at the opera. Which it was. Sort of.
First the good things. This opera lives or dies on the performance of its soprano and it is no exaggeration to say that Ermonela Jaho is Manon...or became Manon, or whatever. She totally embodied the part from start to finish, and although I found her particularly effective as the 16 year old schoolgirl (her petite frame lending credence to the illusion), she also found her hidden hedonist as Manon discovers pleasure and money. And as I expected she was perhaps most compelling in the final tragic tableau - although it was the Chevalier des Grieux who finally managed to pluck at my heartstrings.
Matthew Polenzani as the lovestruck young hero Des Grieux, may not initially strike many as the embodiment of love's young dream, but he uses that to his advantage, playing Des Grieux as gauche and inexperienced and totally under the thrall of Manon, hardly believing his luck that such a beautiful girl would look at him, never mind run away with him to Paris. Don't get me wrong, Polenzani is not unattractive at all, just a 'regular Joe' sort of attractiveness. More importantly, he has a wonderful lyric voice ideally suited to this role and his 'Ah Fuyez douce image' was one of the many vocal highlights for me. And as I mentioned, it was his tragic cry at Manon's death that finally had me stifling a sob.
And yet I still walked away from the performance not really knowing whether I'd enjoyed it or not! For a while I simply couldn't put my finger on why this hadn't been a totally involving experience for me. Generally speaking I love French opera, have no particular problem with Massenet and the romantic/tragic nature of the story of Manon was one which should have guaranteed satisfaction. And yet I came away with a definite feeling of dissatisfaction.
This is the first production of Manon I have ever seen (either live or on stage) so I have nothing really to compare it to, so I still don''t really know whether it's the opera I don't like or this particular production. The thing that did occur me as I was watching, was that there was an awful lot of 'humour' scattered willy-nilly throughout, which to me seemed at odds with the tragedy unfolding. Perhaps its because I am more familiar with Puccini's take on the story which concentrates on the passion and the tragedy. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a little lightness amongst the tragedy but it's so difficult to get right and I just felt the timing and quantity was a little 'off' here - again, I would have to see another production to know if this was a production issue or that Manon really is that funny!
The other disconcerting issue was that at one point I thought I had dozed off and woken up in a production of La Traviata. In act 4 of Manon, we find ourselves at a big party with gambling, lots of chorus singing lustily, and finally to top it all of the hero's father turns up to berate his son, doing a reasonably good impression of Georgio Germont! I'm surprised Verdi didn't sue Massenet for plagiarism.
The production itself, by Laurent Pelly, verges on the twee in Act 1, while the rest is suitably abstract for no good reason, although this has the affect of being able to concentrate on the singers. The St Sulspice scene has the almost obligatory leaning pillars which add nothing to the story, and inserts a handy bed in the church, for the lovers to romp on at the end. So all in all, a typical Pelly production.
Looking back at what I've written, it sounds like I didn't enjoy it. I did, but I just felt I could have enjoyed it more. The singing was fantastic without a doubt and for that I give thanks but I just left feeling a little deflated about the opera and/or the production. Luckily I have another chance to revisit Manon, with another soprano in the title role. I'm looking forward to hearing Ailyn Perez for the first time - and I'm going to give this opera another chance to win me over.
Your thoughts on your evening are close to mine. For me it all clicked afterwards reading another review which mentions that Pelly conceived this Manon as a star vehicle to show off Netrebko and play to her strengths.I think that Jaho did well but she doesn't seem to have the same personality as AN, which is why it didn't -as the Telegraph has it - ignite for me either. I didn't get the feeling Manon was this seductress or sucubbus or temptress with EJ. Plus chemistry with Mathhew P seemed a little absent. And I wasn't a fan of the sets too much. Other than that, a fine night out for me, but one which didn't carry me away, sadly.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick. Yes, that makes sense re Trebs - and of course that's one of the problems about tailoring a production so slavishly to a particular artist - doesn't always come good with a different cast. Having said that I've now seen Ailyn Perez as Manon and the whole thing seemed to catch fire - chemistry with Polenzani was very evident.
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