Puccini’s Manon Lescaut was screened live from the Met in HD, as they frequently remind us, in cinemas on Saturday.
It is a new production by Sir Richard Eyre set in Amiens in 1941 which only partially works. You can see, above on the left, Geronte, the elderly, bald, cuckolded tax collector splendidly acted and sung by Brindley Sherratt and on the right, Manon, the glamorous Kristine Opolais, who can sing, act and look slinky all at the same time. She doesn’t look her best in this picture, so here’s another from the same production to let you appreciate her superb voice, etc.
So it was with a sense of déjà vu that I saw this picture of an elderly, bald man with his slinky, blonde bride. It all went very wrong for Manon, as it usually does in opera, but perhaps it will be Hall right this time?
