Manon Lescaut
- TV Movie
- 2007
- 2h
YOUR RATING
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Featured review
Has only the music, orchestral playing and conducting going for it
I love opera and Puccini, and while not my favourite Puccini opera(Tosca, followed closely by La Boheme) and I do find Massenet's opera more plausible in terms of the last two acts, it is a truly beautiful opera, the music is lush and the final act is heart-breaking. Despite my high appreciation for Manon Lescaut, I just hated this production and it is quite possibly the worst Puccini opera production that I've seen and down there also as one of my least favourite opera productions ever. The music is magnificent, the orchestral playing elegantly phrased and full of pathos and the conducting nuanced. But nothing else works. The sets are ugly especially what looks like a sewer setting at the end of the third act, and the costumes lack sumptuousness and even look muddled, almost as if they had just wandered on stage from a fancy dress party. The staging is neither gripping or moving, the second act especially is a mess, the male singer in drag a disaster on all counts. Likewise with the final act, where it is clear that Ansgar Weigner completely misses the point of the very end. None of the characters are likable and you just don't engage or empathise with them at all.
The performances are not much better. The best voice is Heiko Tresinger as Lescaut, however the stage direction and next to non-existent direction of the singers disallows the character's sympathetic quality to come through. Kouta Rasanen is nowhere near nasty enough either, and it doesn't help that he is much too young for Geronte, who is convincing pretty much only when he older than Manon and Des Grieux, and Rasanen is neither. Astrid Weber has none of the girlish naivety or innocence of Manon, and has no nuances to a voice that is too large for the role in the first place. In fact her singing is so unmusical and focusing on the sing loud mode a lot of the time, that by Sola Perduta Abbandonata she has barely any voice left, therefore diminishing the heart-breaking, blood-freezing feel that this aria ought to have. Zurab Zurabishvili is neither ardent, intense or charming, is very stolid dramatically and his high notes are shouty and forced. He has no chemistry with Weber also. Overall, a terrible Manon Lescaut with only the music, orchestral playing and conducting properly working. 2/10 Bethany Cox
The performances are not much better. The best voice is Heiko Tresinger as Lescaut, however the stage direction and next to non-existent direction of the singers disallows the character's sympathetic quality to come through. Kouta Rasanen is nowhere near nasty enough either, and it doesn't help that he is much too young for Geronte, who is convincing pretty much only when he older than Manon and Des Grieux, and Rasanen is neither. Astrid Weber has none of the girlish naivety or innocence of Manon, and has no nuances to a voice that is too large for the role in the first place. In fact her singing is so unmusical and focusing on the sing loud mode a lot of the time, that by Sola Perduta Abbandonata she has barely any voice left, therefore diminishing the heart-breaking, blood-freezing feel that this aria ought to have. Zurab Zurabishvili is neither ardent, intense or charming, is very stolid dramatically and his high notes are shouty and forced. He has no chemistry with Weber also. Overall, a terrible Manon Lescaut with only the music, orchestral playing and conducting properly working. 2/10 Bethany Cox
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- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 16, 2012
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- Runtime2 hours
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