Traditional Is All Good in SF Opera's 'Manon Lescaut'
/By Elsa Tranter
11/17/2019
Photo credit: Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera
Anthony Clark Evans as Lescaut and Lianna Haroutounian as Manon
Giacomo Puccini’s first hit (though his third opera) has been and continues to be a crowd pleaser. And it was the only one among his operas (which included Tosca, La Bohème, and Madama Butterfly) to be a big success in his lifetime. He struggled with the libretto (no fewer than five librettists are included in the credits, though the main one is Ruggero Leoncavallo (about the same time that Leoncavallo was writing his own most famous opera, Pagliacci). And Puccini was also following close on the heels of Jules Massenet who had just written a popular opera in French based on the same story (by the French author Abbe Prevost in 1731) called simply Manon. When asked why he wanted to copy such a recently popular work, he is said to have replied, “A woman like Manon can have more than one lover”.
The story in both operas is the same—young girl seduced by young man on her way to the nunnery—then seduced by richer old man —then brought low—then dies. Those are the four acts, but so much beautiful music as the story progresses.
San Francisco Opera has revived director Olivier Tombosi and production designer Frank Philipp Schlossmann’s original from Chicago which appeared in San Francisco last in 2006. The opera is set in early 18th century France, though it is sung in Italian. The costumes and sets are traditional and easy on the eye while not distracting from the story or the music. The colors are muted and the end result is very satisfying.
The title role is sung by Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian, making her role debut and a splendid one, too. She has a soaring voice and can reflect the various emotions and situations that Manon must go through, from innocence and naiveté in Act I, to woman of glamour in Act II to common prisoner in Act III to dying of thirst in the desert in Act IV. It’s a challenging role to perform but she was certainly up to the task. Opposite her as the Chevalier des Grieux was American tenor Brian Jagde, also making his role debut. His is a big booming voice that is capable of softness and subtlety when needed, though his acting is not quite on the same level as hers. They have performed together in San Francisco in 2014 in Tosca, also to great success and are very well matched vocally and physically. Their love duets in every act were beautiful to hear and so very romantic.
Manon’s brother Lescaut was powerfully sung and acted by American baritone Anthony Clark Evans; American bass-baritone Philip Skinner was suitably creepy as the lecherous but powerful Geronte di Ravoir. Smaller roles were well sung by current San Francisco Adler Fellows: tenor Christopher Oglesby tenor Zhengyi Bai, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, baritone SeokJong Baek, and bass-baritone Christian Pursell.
Former music director of San Francisco opera Nicola Luisoti returned to conduct the orchestra with his usual wide smile and enormous enthusiasm. Sometimes it was a little too much energy and the orchestra overwhelmed the singers a few times. Still, it was nice to have him back if only for the run of this opera. The Opera chorus, directed by Ian Richardson, filled the stage and added to the richness of the production as they always do, vocally as well as physically, filling out the stage and adding enormous richness to their scenes.
Lianna Haroutounian as Manon and Brian Jagde as Des Grieux
Additional performances on November 20 and 26 at 7:30 and November 24 at 2:00. On November 26th the role of Des Grieux will be sung by Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Davila, making his San Francisco Opera debut.
Elsa Tranter is a Bostonian who has lived in Berkeley for over 40 years and has been an opera goer for most of those years. She worked as a graduate student adviser at UC Berkeley and still attends Cal Performances regularly. Her favorite composer is Wagner and her favorite opera is Tristan und Isolde.