There are good reasons to bring Massenet’s “Manon” on the stage. One of them is Piotr Beczala: Who can win it for the role of the Chevalier des Grieux, has the ACE in the Hand, to cheat without.
And a Joker came to be: As the Zurich Opera house booked the French-Danish soprano Elsa Thirty as Beczalas stage partner, she began to just blend in. Meanwhile, the 28-Year-old is one of the most sought-after young singers, and her role debut as Manon at exactly the right Moment. You could call it game of luck. Or visionary planning.
But as the annoying Guillot de Morfontaine, the lovers in the fourth act of their gambling screwed up, so it does not want to fold this evening with the Opera luck. Because even with perfect cards it needs very skilled players to win in this 1884, premiered the piece.
Beautiful Belle Epoque
The conductor Marco Armiliato so a would be, no doubt. He has conducted play the “Manon” at the Salzburg festival, the Vienna state Opera and the New York Met. And he knows what to do, when Massenet’s score again in a chorus hooks: creating contrasts, colors vary.
Armiliato attracts musicians and musicians of the Philharmonia Zurich in taking into account the ends of solos from the Reserve and pushing them back on to the brilliant Tutti. Also the Balance is right, in the opulent chorus scenes, as in the intimate moments. The voltage is in decline in the course of three hours, nevertheless, again and again, is mainly due to the fact that the conductor wants you to get absolutely upright. Well maintained do not need to provides – because the stage action is much more than beautiful images.
Very nice pictures added. The Designer Dieuweke van Reij has conjured the Belle époque on the stage, with a unit of space, the glamorous can look, or picturesque way poor. The costumes, the hairstyles, the chandelier, the furniture: from the Museum.
Keeper of the family honor
now, however, the Problem of the performance, the piece itself acts, in many respects, a Museum. The character of Manon is timeless; she would have been later invented, would you sing with Marilyn Monroe “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” or Madonna’s “Material Girl,” or Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. The Dutch Director Floris Visser compares them in the Opera house-magazine with an It-Girl, and quite rightly.
But the company, this It-Girl moved, remains in its staging of the decorative past. There was a young woman in a convent is because she enjoys herself a little too fond of – so be it. That des Grieux vorträumt the dream of the white house, of your is definitely not: touching. That he does not want to, in turn, become a priest, after she has placed him, because of the luxury, attracted – why? The robe looks good on him.
Since you do not need the concept of family honor, which in this piece is so important. Cousin Lescaut (Yuriy Yurchuk) may remember the Manon in a magnificent guardsmen Uniform of their duties, before he dedicated himself to life again in his Lotter. The father of the Chevalier des Grieux (Alastair Miles) points out to the Junior with bebendem goatee on his shame, “growing on me”. And the two sugar daddies, the successful de Brétigny (Marc Scoffoni) and the unsuccessful de Morfontaine (Eric Huchet), are not more than ridiculous.
A targeted shot cold
This is all the more regrettable, as the two protagonists would have more to offer: more than beautiful voices, more than the usual Gestures of passion and despair. More than the often static solidity of this staging permits.
Piotr Beczala is a reason decent, easily inflammable des Grieux, the man believes to be on the stage itself, what causes wrinkles in the reading of the libretto forehead. The mass lots of love to Manon; the stubbornness with which he holds to this love; the naivety with which he overlooks everything that speaks against your luck: Beczala conveys all of this with a glowing Tenor, he controlled in any tone, without that it would sound depending on the control.
Elsa is Thirty, has her bright, slender voice in the handle and to force the courage to do so, the ambiguity of Manon. If you diagnose in the first act of a mood in the next tip, you could smooth a borderline syndrome. Her love, her addiction to entertainment, their repentance: Because a Tick is always too much or too little. A targeted shot is cold in your singing, even in their facial Expressions. Only in the song of farewell to the little table, with des Grieux has shared, you can hear a real longing for something that is outside of your reach.
At the end she dies, mourned by des Grieux, and – along with this – hailed by the premiere audience, the rushes, but then striking quickly to the wardrobe. Because there were two really good reasons to set this “Manon” on the game plan. But not any more.
More information about the next performances and the pieces you find here.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 08.04.2019, 16:02 Uhr
