The Met’s current production of Massenet’s Manon was new in 2012, starring Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała, returning in 2014-2015 with Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo. Historically, Manon has been a special occasion: prior productions at the Met from 1895 to this month in 2019 have boasted stellar casts, a literal ‘who’s who’ in the Company’s roster of great singers. This season’s revival adds three more young stars to the list.

**Lisette Oropesa arrives in town as the young Manon**

As Manon Lescaut, Lisette Oropesa makes a triumphant return to our stage after a series of successful appearances in Europe and elsewhere in the States. Prior to this, she sang a number of lighter soprano roles at the Met, notably Humperdinck’s Gretel, Massenet’s Sophie (Werther), Verdi’s Nannetta (Falstaff), and Gilda, this last role in the second cast of the first season of the current Las Vegas production of Rigoletto. Hoarse from shouting Brava! I remember remarking to my family that Oropesa certainly seems ready for prime time!

**Oropesa later, indulging in the (promised) good life**

Clearly so: her Manon here is sung with an effortless, passionate upper register that shines throughout the evening. She is lithe, agile, and playful, making her portrayal of a teenager quite believable in the first scene,* but Oropesa also masters the transition from this happy innocence to a head-strong, abandoned recklessness toward the end of her short life. The soul breaking degradation she suffers at the end is all the more reprehensible, in that it comes at the hands of a flock of men, some of them the long dark-coated, top-hatted gents who throughout the opera swarm around her like vultures over a corpse. Brava Lisette! Welcome back!

**Michael Fabiano is Chevalier des Grieux, Manon’s true love**

Michael Fabiano joins the Met’s list of historic tenors in the role of Le Chevalier des Grieux. He, also young and innocent at the opera’s opening, is a student on his way home from university to greet his father. His meeting with the fetching and fidgety Manon at Amiens is a life-changing event for him as much as it is for her, with big highs of passion and love, alas only to be dropping to deep lows of confusion, depression, and desperation. Notable this evening was the richness and substance of Fabiano’s voice, clearly deepening the art of an already fine instrument. Both he and Oropesa work together well on stage: the St. Sulpice scene** is breathlessly passionate.

**Manon clings to riches as their plan collapses in the Casion**

New to me and equally stellar is the charming and vibrant Lescaut of Polish baritone Artur Ruciński. Lescaut in Massenet’s opera is Manon’s cousin, also, arguably her pimp, as he is the one who brokers the liaison between her and and his gambling buddy de Brétigny. As well, Lescaut probably orchestrates De Grieux’s kidnapping to get him out of the way. Ruciński’s Lescaut is a standout performance vocally and dramatically; his stage presence is captivating, his movements smooth and certain.

As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that in Prévost’s novel, the source of this and other Manon operas, Lescaut is Manon’s brother. He is responsible for some of Manon’s liaisons and also for introducing Des Grieux to the art of cheating at cards. All in all he’s a pretty reprehensible fellow. Ruciński’s Lescaut is happily optimistic about things, even if it involves having his cousin (in the Massenet) support him by selling her favors.

De Brétigny is Brett Polegato and Guillot de Morfontaine is Carlo Bosi, both effective in their roles as chief engineers of Manon’s demolition. Pousette, Javotte, and Rosette (Jacqueline Echols, Laura Krumm, and Maya Lahyani respectively) are standard fare for the Opéra Comique at that time (the 1880s): they’re beautiful, all-the-world’s-a-playground sorts, clones of their gypsy sisters in Carmen, for instance (or of the more entrepreneurially Three Sisters in Offenbach’s La Périchole at Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens). Kwangchul Youn was a rather stiff Comte des Grieux, the Chevalier’s father.

Maurizio Benini conducted the Metropolitan Orchestra.

Laurent Pelly’s production style is well known in these parts, on stage and through video.***** As Manon requires at least one scene change per act, the sets, designed by Chantal Thomas, can be removed fairly quickly and silently. The set for Act I, Scene I, * the Inn at Amiens, is a bland light grayish playing space far below the doll house sized city above. A very long stairway connects the two levels. The benefit of this arrangement is primarily sonic enhancement. Scene II is an odd shell of an apartment in Paris, missing walls and depth, probably also missing a brass bathtub and central air conditioning, but it’s serviceable because it keeps the various groups apart, Lescaut inside, keeping Manon occupied, while others outside kidnap Des Grieux. The aforementioned vultures with top hats were seen milling around. Act II, Scene I*** is a series of ramps, creating a park with very little foliage, and so on. Not particularly eye-catching, but, as I say, serviceable.

Pelly designed the costumes, elegant for the rich, more dingy for the lower classes. Lionel Hoche choreographed the dancers of the Opéra ballet in the park where they pirouette playfully, but it’s mostly as an advertising stuff, fetching a chance to be swept up and carried off by the wealthy gentlevultures as mistresses. The previous Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production (1987) was more realistic in the settings, though cluttered with busy things. It erred in a different way.

Here, to me in the Orchestra, the action, the singing, and the score carry the evening, not the sets. Plus, the closeups in any HD telecast will make you forget the shortcomings of the mise-en-scene in the House. Don’t miss the final performance! Massenet’s Manon is a winner.

Photos by Morty Sohl.

Review performance date: October 22, 2019.

* Act I, as written; Act I, Scene I as performed.

** Act III, Scene II, as written and performed.

*** Act III, Scene I, as written; Act II, Scene I as performed.

**** I have, as in recordings of, four others, including, obviously, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Auber’s Manon Lescaut, but also two others with different titles and character names, but similar dramatic content.

***** Check out OM’s review of Laurent Pelly’s L’Etoile on Blu ray at the top of the page New Recordings. You’ll get down Pelly’s style…

Those other casts for Manon in the Met’s history include soprano Sibyl Sanderson and Jean de Reszke (1895), then the great trio of Geraldine Farrar, Enrico Caruso, and Antonio Scotti (the famous tenor was my grandmother-in-law’s favorite) (1909), the great Lucrezia Bori, Beniamino Gigli, and Giuseppe de Luca (these last two my father-in-law’s favorites) (1928), then Victoria de los Angeles, Cesare Valletti, and Fernando Corena (Corena was always one of my favories) (1954). Long list, but not in my past.

However, one of my many regrets: I missed the opportunity of seeing Nicolai Gedda and Anna Moffo in a new production of Manon at the Met in the fall of 1963. They were both well known to me through recordings, but at this point, in my soon-to-be second season at the Met. Alas, before I cut loose and gained the benefit of an impassioned standee gossip to guide my choices for a bucket-list of operas and singers to be seen, Manon and Massenet, for that matter, were simply unknown quantities. Besides, I had to rely on my father to get tickets (no mail order then) and, so what?, I couldn’t legally drive anywhere, anyway.

My first Manon on stage was with Beverley Sills and John Alexander, Julius Rudel at the helm at the New York City Opera in April, 1973. It was excellent and memorable, the later video of this production is nostalgically good. We’ve seen the new productions, Ponnelle in 1986, later with my dear Renée Fleming in the title role, then the Pelly troupe.

Great opera, simply said. Don’t miss it.

This season’s Manon at the Met is performed in three acts with two intermissions and pauses in each act, curtain down, for changing the scenery. The running time of the HD performance is about four hours and change.

Manon appears on the Met stage for its final performance, the matinee Saturday, October 26, at 1:00, ET, with the same cast reviewed here. For ticket information or to place an order, please call (212) 362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org. Special rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling (212) 341-5410 or by visiting www.metopera.org/groups.

This matinee performance of Manon will be telecast live in HD to theaters worldwide and radio broadcast or streamed via various media. It will also be encored in some locations. Information about HD venues, operas, dates, times, casts, and tickets can be found on the Metropolitan Opera website www.metopera.org.

Note local telecast dates: the Quick Center at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT, will show the October 26 matinee performance of Manon live in HD at 1 p.m. and again as an encore at 6 p.m. Tickets for these at the Quick Center may be ordered online at www.fairfield.edu/lifeatfairfield/artsminds/quickcenterforthearts or one may call the Quick Center Box Office at 203-254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396.

The Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, CT, will also telecast Manon on Saturday, October 26 at 12:00 p.m. Tickets for this performance @ Ridgefield may be ordered online at www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org or from the box office of the Ridgefield Playhouse at 203-438-5795.

The vibes are good at these venues! Plus ample free parking is available at both; please check their websites for directions to theaters and suggestions for fine regional dining.

Enjoy! My Manon (10,22, 2019) was a totally beautiful night with new friends in my row…but it was marred by awful weather to and from the City. October can be beautiful month. But sometimes not!

Luv, OM