Vienna State Opera: ‘Manon Lescaut’
07/02/22
A Mall that palled!
That was my thought after this performance at the Vienna Opera of Puccini’s opera ‘Manon Lescaut’. This opera has three very distinct settings, an opening act which welcomes the young Manon to city life, a the second act that takes place in her bedroom and the final scene is set in the “Louisiana desert” ( which is in the mind of the librettist since it doesn’t exist! ).This Robert Carsen production sets the opera in modern times and opens in a very swish modern shopping mall which wouldn’t be out of place in central Vienna, but having spent so much on this set it seemed to have to stay for the rest of the opera, although often in the background. So Manon’s boudoir in the second act became a couch set in the middle of the shopping mall, and the desert in the last act was an empty rundown (American?) shopping area. This made for a less than convincing setting for what is already a flimsy plot. I’m sure Carsen wanted us to focus on the abuse of women and how they are seduced by shopping, but it was one of those operas where you might want to close your eyes and listen rather than watch.
Fortunately, this was a cast and an orchestra well worth listening to, led by one of the rising stars of opera, Asmik Grigorian as Manon. She was vocally superb throughout the opera. If her acting was less than convincing at times, this was more down to the production than to her. Can you really die of thirst in a shopping mall? Her lover des Grieux was well sung by Brian Jagde, an American tenor who I have heard at Covent Garden in the past. He has a very firm clear tone, and whilst not among the top range of tenors did a very decent job vocally. Artyom Wasnetsov was very imposing in height and in his bass voice playing Geronte, but I’m not sure Puccini would approve of him as what seems to be a Mafia boss. Josh Lovell had a nice tenor voice as Edmondo, Boris Pinkhasovich as Manon’s brother, Lescaut, had a good baritone voice but again I don’t think Puccini meant him to be as sleazy as he is portrayed here.
Other parts are well sung and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (drawn from the Vienna Philharmonic) as always sounded superb under the baton of young Italian conductor Francesco Ivan Ciampa. ‘Manon Lescaut’ is not my favourite Puccini opera and it palls in comparison to Boheme or Tosca but here the shopping mall set made it pall all the more. Time for a new production, Vienna?
