Jules Massenet, Manon (1882)

So there's this list called "Top 50 Operas" from the Guardian. That title is misleading, as it's not any kind of top-anything list, nor is it meant to be: it's just intended as an overview of the form. I have my issues with it, and I'll probably write about them later, but recently I decided, just for kicks, to watch every opera on it. Not in a particularly focused or systematic way, but eventually, probably sooner rather than later. Why not? I'd seen most of them already, so it's just a fun thing to do.

One of the operas on the list is Manon, and oh my GOD, I'm not quite sure why, but I SO did not want to watch this opera. Seriously, you suggest to me just about any opera I haven't seen, and many that I have, and I'll be like, sure, why not, let's go for it. But the prospect of seeing Manon just filled me with apathy. It's true that I didn't much care for the only other Massenet opera I've seen, Cendrillon, but that wasn't the main thing, I don't think. I'll be down with seeing Werther or Thaïs, for sure. I also found Puccini's Manon Lescaut a bit dull, but why should that make a difference? Different composer, totally different take on the story. I think what it came down to, basically, was that the story in question really fails to excite me and I don't care what anyone does with it. I mean, I still don't know quite why this should be the only one about which I feel this way, but there you are. Still, if I was going to watch everything on the list, I was gonna have to get to it sooner or later, so I forced myself to watch it. I KNOW that that's totally perverse and that it just sets the opera up to fail, but seriously, I don't think I was just going to naturally become more predisposed towards it anytime soon, so what choice did I have?

Well...I don't know if this is just a self-fulfilling prophesy or what, but as I anticipated, I didn't like this very much. I've never read Manon Lescaut the novel (maybe I should?), but this is certainly significantly different than Puccini (then again, I don't remember that one being very well-plotted either, so maybe there are similarities). In Puccini (if I recall aright; it's been a while), Manon goes off to be a rich man's mistress because they're out of money, whereas here, she just leaves des Grieux at the promise of an opulent life. He definitely doesn't become a priest in Puccini after losing her. Perhaps most significantly, the ending is changed: after having been transported to the United States for prostitution, Puccini has her die thirst and exhaustion in the Great Louisiana Desert, but Massenet doesn't even have her transported: thanks to a bribe from Lescaut, she's released, but then she dies anyway for no particular reason. So not super-edifying in either case.

I don't know; maybe I really don't like Massenet's music. Manon has a famous aria as she's preparing to leave des Grieux, "Adieu, notre petite table," which I guess is kind of poignant, but, honestly, nothing here really excited me--though it surely can't help that I find the drama so uncompelling. One notable thing is that Manon herself is incredibly mercenary throughout almost the whole thing. Dunno if that hews closely to the source material, but I found it hard to get too involved in the tragedy. I was watching this version with Netrebko as Manon, but after the first three acts, just out of boredom, I switched to this one: same production, different cast. I will say I preferred Lisette Oropesa in the role, but it's not a strong preference. Des Grieux comes across as kind of gormless in both the one and the other.

That's mostly all I have to say about this, but I wanted to call attention to just one thing in the production. It's updated to the nineteenth century, which, sure, fine, it certainly works better than that comtemporary Manon Lescaut I saw, even if it feels a bit arbitrary, but there's one part, after a ballet sequence, where dudes are abducting the dancers and carrying them off-stage as they're screaming, and, like, WHAT? I mean maybe you could do a feminist production where that would feel appropriate, but here it's just out of nowhere, and it feels like pointless edginess for the sake of it. I was not amused. Boo to the producer.