Manon - le retour à Covent Garden

Manon - Royal Opera House, 29 June 2010

Following a brief flexing of her Manon-muscles in Vienna at the weekend, Anna Netrebko was back at Covent Garden on Monday night to recommence battle against Laurent Pelly's MDF and frilly knickers. Her new, bigger voice takes a while to settle, but once it did she was even more impressive than on opening night. There was one moment of danger - a near-crack on a solitary top D - but from then on she sailed through.

In fact everyone seemed to have upped their game - the orchestra sounded freer, the cast more relaxed. Vittorio Grigolo was the most changed, and entirely for the better. He reined in his opening night excesses and turned in a characterisation of some subtlety, revealing a world of vocal colour previously masked beneath can belto volume and acting skillz way beyond arm-flinging. Hope Covent Garden have secured a return booking while they can.

 

Comments

[Michael]

A few photos and a brief video of this performance:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonstuff/sets/72157624255858635/

[Michael]

@Ms Clap - couldn't disagree with you more - I thought the staging for Manon, especially in the first scene, was really effective. As for La Fille, even you would have to admit you're in the minority with that view.

[Adrian Sells]

I was there on Monday evening and wholly concur with your revised view. The performance was a joy musically. The supporting roles and chorus were very good, as were Pappano and the ROH orchestra, but this was all about two star singers: Netrebko, the established darling, absolutely at the top of her form (especially after the first act), and Grigolo, the new tenor on the block (at least at the ROH), who sang magnificently and had obviously adjusted his acting performance since the first night.
This makes the point that I have often noticed - no two performances are exactly the same - and what the opening night critic reports on may be different to what is seen later in a run. Is this why so much attention is now focussed on the director and production (which are less likely to vary)than on the musical (inc vocal) values?
In this case, the production (esp sets) are a disappointment.