BWW Reviews: Daredevil Damrau and Glorious Grigolo Make MANON Sizzle at the Met

Soprano Diana Damrau did another of her high-wire acts at the Met this week, with her third role debut here in under two years. After last year's spectacular Amina in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, she's taken on the title role in Massenet's MANON and proven once again that she is one of the company's greatest assets.

The role calls for a huge range both in singing and acting, in this tale of a woman who can give up neither "love nor luxury" and ends up with neither. Damrau was at her considerable best in the later scenes, when she no longer has to play a cute 14-year-old, but a kind of prototype for Lorelei Lee, who believes "diamonds are a girl's best friend."

Manon is the naïve young thing who arrives in Paris from the provinces to stay with her cousin (who's a soldier and inveterate gambler) and almost immediately meets and falls in love with a young man, the Chevalier des Grieux (tenor Vittorio Grigolo). But she is willing to give it up for a chance at the high life of the French capital and everything it has to offer. She spends the rest of the opera wavering between love of money and love of a man, until she meets an unhappy end.

But before that happens, she gets some fun out of life.

The heart of the opera is Act III and its two contrasting scenes. In the first, at Cours-de-Reine, Manon sings boisterously of her luxurious life, in what is probably the opera's most famous music, "Je marche sur tous les chemins" and the charming gavotte "Obéissons quand leur voix appelle" ("We obey when they call"). At the end of the scene, Manon realizes that Chevalier des Grieux became a priest after she deserted him, and goes off to find him at the stark confines of St. Sulpice church on the Left Bank in Paris.

There, Damrau and her ace co-star, tenor Vittorio Grigolo as the Chevalier (later, Abbé), nearly set the stage on fire with erotic tension and full-throttled singing. Grigolo also had a great night; this is clearly a very good role for him and he took full advantage of it, particularly in "Ah ! Fuyez, douce image" in St. Sulpice. (She responds with the breathtaking "N'est-ce plus ma main?" ["Isn't this still my hand?"]) While Grigolo has frequently been overheated in his roles at the Met, this was not the case with des Grieux. He did some superb, ardent singing, but with subtlety when called for.

In general, the cast was wonderful, starting with a trio of baritones. Nicolas Testé--Damrau's husband--gave a gorgeously sung Comte des Grieux (the Chevalier's father) in his role debut, while Russell Braun was the foolhardy Lescaut, Manon's cousin who turns gambling into a profession and Dwayne Croft was de Bretigny, Lescaut's pal and lover of Manon. Tenor Christophe Mortagne proved there's no fool like an old (rich) fool, in a smart turn as Guillot de Morfontaine. Bravo, too, to the three "actresses" who share a love of luxury with Manon: Mireille Asselin (Pousette), Cecilia Hall (Javette) and Maya Lahyani (Rosette).

Laurent Pelly's two-year-old production, with sets designed by Chantal Thomas and lighting by Joel Adam, holds up pretty well. It is a fairly simple affair, moving in- and outdoors with fluidity and becoming claustrophobic in the gambling house of Act IV. Pelly seemed to have spent more of his time (and budget) on concocting the glamorous costumes for the female characters. Lionel Hoche's choreography is well integrated into the story (unusual in any opera...). The associate director was Christian Rath.

Conductor Emmanuel Villaume led a fluid, lively performance from the Met Orchestra, bringing out all the nuances of the score without letting a moment lag.

It's too bad that the Met hasn't included MANON in its "Live in HD" series this year--it's a performance that should be seen, everywhere.

###

Photo: Diana Damrau in the title role and Vittorio Grigolo as Chevalier des Grieux

Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

To post a comment, you must register and login.