Puccini - Manon Lescaut

Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera / James Levine

Decca 440 200-2DHO2 Buy now

(120’ · DDD · S/T/t)

Mirella Freni sop Manon Lescaut; Luciano Pavarotti ten Des Grieux; Dwayne Croft bar Lescaut; Giuseppe Taddei bar Geronte; Ramón Vargas ten Edmondo; Cecilia Bartoli mez Singer; Federico Davia bass Innkeeper, Captain; Anthony Laciura ten Dancing Master; Paul Groves ten Lamplighter; James Courtney bass Sergeant

With Luciano Pavarotti a powerful Des Grieux, James Levine conducts a comparably big-boned performance of Manon Lescaut, bringing out the red-blooded drama of Puccini’s first big success while not ignoring its warmth and tender poetry in exceptionally full, vivid sound, with the voices well in front of the orchestra. In the title-role, Freni’s performance culminates in an account of the big Act 4 aria, more involving and passionate than any of the others on rival versions, with the voice showing no signs of wear, and with her sudden change of face at the words ‘terra di pace’ (‘a land of peace’) bringing a magical lightening of tone. That aria makes a thrilling climax, when too often this act can seem a let-down. In this, as in so much else, Levine conveys the tensions and atmosphere of a stage performance in a way that owes much to his experience at the Met. 

More completely than other versions, it avoids the feeling of a studio performance. Reactions to Pavarotti as Des Grieux will differ widely. The closeness of balance means that in volume his singing rarely drops below mezzo-forte, but there’s little harm in having so passionate a portrait of Des Grieux as Pavarotti’s. Needless to say, the hero’s big emotional climaxes in each of the first three acts come over at full force. The rest of the cast is strong too, with Dwayne Croft a magnificent Lescaut.