Saturday, February 09, 2008

No Show-Stoppers

Tuesday evening, Kelly had an extra ticket to "Manon Lescaut" at the Metropolitan Opera and I was pleased to tag along.

The first major success of Giacomo Puccini's illustrious career, "Manon Lescaut" is set in 1720s France and, in its final act, the wilds of Louisiana.

It's a good opera and I enjoyed it. But, there are good reasons for why it's not as well known as Puccini's hits like "La boheme" and "Turandot." There are no show-stopping arias and the characters do not elicit much empathy. (The lead characters are twits, frankly.)

The New York Times was on target in its iffy review of this production. The Washington Post gave it a lukewarm treatment, too.

Below is a YouTube video clip of an older production of "Manon Lescaut" featuring Placido Domingo:

1 comment:

Heidi Price said...

I was just thinking about the time I completely slept through Marriage of Figaro.

Hope all is well with you Paul Snathcko.

- h