| | |  | Ballets & Classics | Home » » » Puccini - Manon Lescaut (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series) | | | | | | | Description: | | Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft, and Dale Travis star in this Metropolitan Opera production of the Puccini opera conducted by James Levine. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft, Dale Travis, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra | | Director:
| James Levine (Conductor) | | Format:
| Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| Italian, German, English, French, Spanish | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Emi Classics | | Run Time:
| 92 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| September 16, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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31 of 34 found the following review helpful:
 An uneven, frustrating performanceAug 28, 2008
By Ivy Lin
First off, I'd like to say that I am a huge fan of Karila Mattila. I saw her in Jenufa, and then in Salome, and the Salome remains one of the most memorable of my operatic experiences. I remember the trance-like feeling I got during her performance. So thoroughly did she inhabit the amoral and sensuous Salome that I thought, "This is a soprano who can do anything." Well, this Manon Lescaut proves that she can't.
It's hard to tell whether the years have just taken their toll on Mattila, or that she's fundamentally unsuited to the part of Manon Lescaut. Since I am a great admirer of Ms. Mattila, I would like to believe the latter theory. But still, I was alarmed by what I heard. Her voice seems to have a lost of richness, and sounds very white and occasionally harsh. She lunges at the high notes in a distressing way, and to make up for her lack of a chest voice she uses an overly glottal attack. Occasionally under pressure the voice even has a hint of a wobble. Frankly, she screams a lot, and her pitch falters. All of this would be forgiven if her portrayal was convincing. But alas, it is not. Mattila is usually a very sensitive, arresting stage actress, but her she overplays. Her expressions are hammy, and she looks a bit grotesque, as if she were projecting to the standing room of the Family Circle. It's hard to tell whether she's overacting or that she's simply struggling with the role, but Manon should not constantly look as if she was about to die. Manon is not Tosca. "In quelle trine morbide" is sad, wistful, but Mattila makes it overwrought. This is disappointing as she was able to convey a touching girlishness as Jenufa and a sultry, desperate vampiness as Salome. With a frumpy old-lady white wig, she looks even more unflattering. She seems fundamentally unsuited to the role.
Marcello Giordani, the Lescaut, is a most frustrating tenor. He is a very uneven performer, and this doesn't mean that one night he sounds great and the very next night awful. It means that one minute he can sound great and the next minute awful. At its best, his voice has a ringing brightness and "squillo" that recalls the great Italian tenors of yesteryear, like Franco Corelli or Mario del Monaco. But he can also sound distressingly strangulated, hoarse and out-of-pitch, like a late-day Giovanni Martinelli. His acting is of the generic variety, but he's very natural onstage, and gives an ardent performance of des Grieux. He is best in the third and fourth acts. I really don't have many complaints about his performance.
The fussy, ornate production by the Met might have looked good maybe 20 years ago, but it now has a dusty, careworn look, a bit like Miss Havisham's mansion. You half expect to see cobwebs on the curtains.
The Met has another video of Manon Lescaut, with Scotto and Domingo, filmed around 1982. These were the days when Scotto's top was no longer reliable or attractive, but her voice has the right sound, and she is more at home with Puccini's music and style than Mattila.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Manon!Jan 16, 2009
By P. Sutherland
I'm surprised by the critical reviews of Karita Mattila's performance as Manon Lescaut although I've never seen her before, so I had nothing to compare her to. (Wrong! She is the star of my favorite production of Fidelio!) I thought she was perfect! She held nothing back in her acting or singing and during the entire performance I kept thinking she is the best I've seen. Admittedly, she is too old for the part but so is Marcello Giordani, who was excellent also.
I was impressed with all the singers. Dwayne Croft was excellent as Lescaut and Dale Travis was great as Geronte. I could picture him as Baron Ochs in Strauss' Rosenkavalier. Sean Panikkar was the best Edmondo I've ever seen. I even thought the lamplighter, Tony Stevenson, was good. The chorus was also good. No weak links anywhere.
The sets and period costumes were excellent. The music was perfect.
This is a great production. I've seen many Manon Lescaut's and this one is one of the best.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 More than just great operaNov 11, 2008
By Patrick Maschka
"OperaGeek"
For me, there is just something about Manon Lescaut that is deeply moving. So I admit that I am hard to disappoint when it comes to performances of Puccini's first big hit. Still, I consider myself to be pretty critical and picky, even if I get a little sentimental. I personally think this version easily competes with other DVDs available, and not just because of the musical performances.
I attended this performance live at a local movie theatre and was quickly drawn into the compelling, unrelenting melancholy of this opera. It took me a while to warm up to Marcello Giordani's initially wooden Des Grieux, but his portrayal gradually relaxed and took hold, imparting passion and depth to the role. His beautiful singing is full of emotion, even if it is imperfect (whose isn't?). I had high hopes for Karita Mattila as Manon, and she does not disappoint me. I have no trouble believing this is a teenager who cannot manage beauty, love, wealth and an untimely death. Granted, not every note Mattila produces during this performance is beautiful, but that is not necessary to be effective and compelling in verismo opera. Like most of Puccini's heroines, this is a treacherous role, but Mattila handles it well and her singing is lovely when it needs to be, which is most of the time. Her characterization is what I find the most impressive. Levine in the pit is thoroughly absorbed in the gorgeous music, and he clearly loves every note Puccini wrote, bringing to life all the suffering, sorrow, and remorse that fill the score. My favorite moment: the soaring duet in Act IV where Des Grieux, Manon, and the orchestra reach a most thrilling, devastating climax.
All of these recordings of the Met HD broadcasts offer so much more than just an audience seat at the opera house. True genius has practically created another art form out of the genre, with everything from a birds-eye to a fly-on-the-wall view of everything going on, before, during, in-between, and after the four acts, both on and off stage. We follow Maestro Levine to the pit and the singers on and off stage, and hear insightful and entertaining interviews given by the esteemed Renee Fleming (maybe the beloved soprano could have another career in broadcast journalism?). We also learn in this production about how animals are trained to be creatures of the theatre and get glimpses of the detailed work that goes on when the curtain is down.
Taken as a whole package, this DVD production of one of my favorite operas is a welcome addition to my collection, one that I will surely return to again and again.
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Manon de Merteuil, or The Met Dangereuse.Dec 31, 2009
By Anna Shlimovich
With this performance, and the DVD, the Met has taken a new step towards its reputation as the most atrocious opera house among the rich and famous.
It seems that for the roles of young lovers in this performance anyone younger than 50 was disqualified. That would be somewhat excusable if the protagonists sang well, but both Karita Mattila and Marcello Giordani were frightening in their squeaky voices and obvious strain with parts they performed. Indeed once again Met seemed to excel to engage the fading stars, it seems, rolling on big names who can't sing anymore - and it is especially awful that this DVD is only from 2008, so quite new.
Not only their singing leaves cold and rather shivering from displeasure, the acting in the Madrigal and Dance scenes is just so vulgar and low-taste; how can believe that Manon is a young and beautiful gentle lover, when this older woman behaves like a fish seller at the peasant market? The whole production impresses with crudity and lack of any tenderness; the singers were a caricature on their roles, and perhaps they would resemble bored libertines from Les Liaisons Dangereuses if they acted with more elegance. The production also lacks any imagination as it was done in the old traditional style, yet one can hardly imagine these people as refined French - but rather as American trailer park dwellers in disguise.
In addition, the inserts with Renee Fleming also impressed with a TV soap opera style comments, which intruded in the fabric of the work - these should have been left to bonus materials, but not interwoven into the performance itself.
This DVD is a huge failure - both as an opera performance and as a DVD production. One could compare this with an earlier Flemish Opera production with Miriam Gauci and Jan Danckaert or with Covent Garden one with Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa for an evening of enjoyment.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
A mixed bag.Aug 19, 2009
By David
I love Puccini's music in this opera--what he writes for the voices and for the orchestra. I'm also a big fan of the Met's video productions of their many operas; not just the ones done recently in high definition, but those done on video tape since the 1980s at least. They are well-directed; thank you, Brian Large, director of this one.
Overall, I enjoyed Karita Mattila in this production; I thought her acting was absolutely right for what is, after all, a stage production (not a film). Her voice isn't perfect at every moment, but she won me over.
I find tenor Marcello Giordani uneven, based on a couple of performances I've attended and when I've heard him on the radio, and in this video; I mean this re: his voice and his acting. I find it a bit painful to watch and listen to him. I agree with another reviewer, though, that he is better in the final acts than in the first two.
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