Eros and Tànatos, the operatic themes par excellence, join hands in this explosive Manon by Massenet that the Liceu premiered yesterday with great anticipation - the dress rehearsal was held behind closed doors - and with fully satisfactory results. Especially for the vocal bill, which started from the cancellation of Javier Camarena giving the response to the fabulous Nadine Sierra - setbacks that the tenor Michael Fabiano solves with power -, and a little less for the montage proposal signed by the actor and director Olivier Py, a great stage management asset who has just been named director of the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris, after his time at the Odéon and the Avignon Festival.
The final eight minutes of applause, with the audience standing, crowned Nadine Sierra as queen of the Liceu and Fabiano as a worthy prince. And whether or not the audience liked the staging was also impossible to appreciate, because no representative of Py's production deigned to come out to say hello.
It would be necessary to start from a couple of premises to understand the extent of the success of this assembly - material that is already a few years old - of one of the most powerful French operas in the repertoire. Py, who describes himself as Catholic and homosexual, knows how to emphasize sordid eroticism in a social context marked by double standards. And precisely this opera, which Jules Massenet composed in 1882, is in itself an invitation to remove your head and observe the lust that proliferated in France at the beginning of the 18th century, when Paris was experiencing the height of debauchery and the houses of prostitution This is the Paris that Abbe Prevost knows closely. The author of Manon Lescaut, which gives rise to the libretto, made his forays into the dissolute life, not at all at odds with the religious life at the time.
But this story of the young woman who on her way to the convent meets her cousin Lescaut (baritone Alexandre Duhamel) and his depraved friends fall surrendered to her beauty and shower her with riches until she becomes the most precious courtesan of the city can hardly surprise today's society. A history of 18th century debauchery passed through the filter of 19th century morality. Py breaks those filters and exposes the characters in their lustful side, without concealing it, in a red barrio district - with its rooms shown simultaneously - in which Guillot de Morfontaine (Albert Casals) is a sexual predator or Monsieur de Brétigny ( Tomeu Bibiloni), a rich pimp. And they, the supposed actresses, Pousette, Javotte and Rosette (Inés Ballesteros, Anna Tobella and Anaïs Masllorens), walk the streets pretending to be queens.
Neon lights, opulence, parties... this is what Manon has waiting to enjoy when she meets the young Des Grieux and falls in love, with the reluctance of his father, a magnificent Laurent Naouri. With wit, Manon gets rid of it and sings "Je marxi sud tous les chemins", one of the most demanding coloratura arias, made a star that is exhibited as the most requested.
The sensual Nadine Sierra, truly proverbial, dives into the role of partner Fabiano's hand. Sick of heartbreak, it is he, Des Grieux, who becomes a priest and enters the convent, a stronghold of the era against the evil of love. “Ah! Fuyez, douce image”, he sings in the third act, unable to forget her. It is the preamble to a fateful ending in which the disco ball, which throws flashes of lightning into the audience, and the skull, which foreshadows death, oppose each other as in the eternal debate between pleasure and duty.
It is the chemistry that is established between these best friends from the United States that is at stake in the famous later duo. Chemistry that in the second cast is guaranteed, with Pene Pati and his wife, the soprano Amina Edris.
Maestro Marc Minkowski makes the effort to conduct the orchestra with a broken shoulder and reduced mobility. And the choir brings the dynamism that gives a touch of grace to this montage with a scenography of debatable tastes.
