Puccini - Manon Lescaut (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live...

Buy This Item Puccini - Manon Lescaut (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live... by Emi Classics  Available from Amazon  $18.99  on 11-16-2008     The Metropolitan Opera's acclaimed Live in High-Definition series, which projects live performances into theaters across the globe, has met with unprecedented critical and commercial success and has made opera convenient and affordable to millions of viewers worldwide. Now, EMI Classics is proud to collaborate with The Met to release 6 new DVDs made from these broadcast performances. Finnish soprano Karita Mattila gives a career-high performance- the New York Times called her "riveting" in Puccini's passionate opera. With an equally superlative performance by James Levine and the Met Orchestra, this is unparalleled music making at its finest. Reader Reviews 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, alas, 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. 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. This is disappointing as she was able to convey a touching girlishness as Jenufa and a sultry 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. 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.

Puccini - Manon Lescaut (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live... Available from Amazon Price: $18.99 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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