OPERA
Opera Season Gears Up
Massenet’s “Manon,” Verdi’s winning “Macbeth” at the Met
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
This Met season has Jules
Massenet’s “Manon” near
its start and Puccini’s
“Manon Lescaut” near its
close. Both are major works but
different in their treatment of the
Abbe Prevost novel and its leading
pair of reckless teenage lovers.
At September 24’s revival premiere,
we had promising and in
many ways exciting casting in the
fi rst-ever Manon of the increasingly
expert Lisette Oropesa and the
fi rst des Grieux of out gay Michael
Fabiano, who tried “Manon” out
in Bilbao last year. The soprano
looked Manon to perfection, both
as a randy hayseed and a sophisticated
cocotte; her voice, clear and
attractive if without an intensely
personal timbre, took a while to
unfurl, but except for a few topmost
notes she had everything well
in hand technically and showed a
fi ne command of Gallic style. The
tenor — admirably out for a performer
of leading romantic roles —
offered a lot of highly charged Italianate
tone, sometimes to a fault a
la late period Giuseppe di Stefano.
While he also managed to sing softly
in a wistful “Reve,” it only rarely
sounded like true voix mixte. Energy
Fabiano had — he played the
aristocratic would-be seminarian
like a handsy horndog. These two
performances didn’t quite blend
but both had much to offer.
Management mysteriously conferred
this perfumed, tuneful score
to Maurizio Benini, far from his
usual repertory and (alas) sounding
it. Tempi were slack and several
major concerted numbers threatened
to falter. There was not plainly
enough rehearsal and the ensemble
will improve. As with “Lulu,” I
always feel that the “Manon” gambling
scene could be excised with
little detriment. It offers about four
minutes of worthwhile music: des
Grieux’s repeated “sirène” addresses
to Manon — which strained Fabiano
to his limits — and the trio,
where Oropesa fi nally managed a
stunning D.
We heard good spoken and sung
French from Oropesa but the cast
contained not a single native francophone.
Artur Rucinski’s Lescaut
gave further evidence of his fi ne
baritone and adaptable stage presence;
his elegant “O Rosalinde”
was a true highlight. The fi nely vocalized
Bretigny of another out gay
artist, Canadian baritone Brett
Polegato, marked an overdue Met
debut, after having come to New
York City Opera 15 years ago. It’s
important (and rare) to have an
accomplished singer in this crucial
part. Kwangchul Youn acted a
suitably magisterial and arrogant
Comte, but though his bass retains
its heft and appealing warmth it
now has a pronounced wobble.
Debutante Jacqueline Echols
sounded appealing as Poussette,
the part that brought Teresa Stratas
to the Met in 1959.
Director Laurent Pelly’s seemingly
Cecil Beaton-inspired costumes
lent color to the show. I’d
forgotten that Chantal Thomas’
wan sets and props look like they’d
been acquired at IKEA for $800. It
still makes zero sense to have des
Grieux sleeping on a bed in the St.
Sulpice church, though it does add
spice to the seduction scene. Despite
shortcomings this “Manon”
showcased some fi ne singing and
acting; worth seeing or catching at
October 26’s HD showing.
October 1 brought the third
performance of one of Verdi’s
most enjoyable operas, “Macbeth”.
Each performance had a
varied leading couple, as at the
previous performance Craig Colclough
had stepped in for Zeljko
Lucic as Macbeth and this evening
marked the Met debut of a muchtalked
about Italian soprano, Anna
Pirozzi, stepping into the part superstar
Anna Netrebko took at the
other shows.
When the Met fi rst mounted
“Macbeth” in 1959, the terrifyingly
written Lady Macbeth served as
Leonie Rysanek’s triumphant debut
vehicle, launching a 37-year
company career (though her local
Verdi excursions ceased in 1964).
Only two others have dared the
challenge as a company debut: the
fearless Olivia Stapp (1982) and the
disastrous Nadja Michael (2012),
one of the current regime’s most notorious
“Looks 9/ Voice 2” passing
enthusiasms.
The Neapolitan Pirozzi, billed as
a dramatic soprano, has sung the
role in several major European centers
including London, Paris, and
Madrid. She sings other voice-risking
Verdi parts in “Nabucco” and
“Attila,” plus Puccini’s “Turandot.”
This seems like playing with fi re.
She showed stage confi dence and
— if not quite Netrebko’s remarkable
charisma — real presence, plus
genuine Italian diction and a housefi
lling Verdian dramatic spinto. She
did very well indeed for most of the
evening, winning several ovations,
before tiring in the fi nal hurdle of
the Sleepwalking Scene’s threadof
voice high D fl at. The voice, remarkably
even, has bite and spin;
she tended to vary dynamics rather
than vocal coloration. I’d love to
hear her as some of the less acrobatic
Verdi heroines, like Amelia
Grimaldi and Elisabetta di Valois.
Lucic sang with considerable
caution, thus giving a more nuanced
and on-pitch performance
than I’ve heard from him in some
➤ OPERA GEARS UP, continued on p.43
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