| Descrizione | Giacomo Puccini - Manon Lescaut (2005) [DVD9 PAL] (Guleghina Muti)
Actors: Jose Cura, Marco Berti, Maria Guleghina, Lucio Gallo, Luigi Roni
Directors: Liliana Cavani
Format: Multiple Formats, Classical, Color, Dolby, PAL, Widescreen
Language: Italian, English
Subtitles: German, English, Spanish, Italian, French
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Tdk DVD Video
DVD Release Date: September 20, 2005
Run Time: 126 minutes
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Muti, Mahler and Ma: At holiday time, the joy of sets is unbounded
This year's boxed bounty in classical music comes in three categories -- not so pricey, pricey and way pricey. But the following CD and DVD sets are worth splurging on, and the music lovers on your gift list will appreciate your generosity.
Maria Guleghina impresses strongly. To my mind she is Puccini’s ideal ‘tart with a heart for gold’. She has control and sensitivity and she acts everybody off the stage. She’s coy (but with just a hint of being street-wise) in Act I, outrageously flighty and avaricious in Act II, and, at last, contrite in Act IV. Just watch her as she taunts Geronte di Ravoir (a far too gentlemanly Luigi Roni) in Act II and the way she disports herself on the floor of the stage to seduce Des Grieux back to her charms. What a pity the wardrobe department could not have served her with more flattering costumes – and that wig! José Cura, as Des Grieux, is in fine voice, colourful and ardent – I just wish he could have been that bit more furious with Manon in his Act II entrance. But his singing with Guleghina (their voices blending so well) ravishes the ear especially in their tempestuous Act II duets and in the intensity of their Act IV duet as Manon dies in the arms of a distraught Des Grieux. Lucio Gallo convinces as Lescaut the scoundrel on the make, strutting and scheming.
The sets vary from the almost minimalist to the sumptuous. Act I is quite bare save for a tall thin colonnade allowing freedom of movement for the crowd. The La Scala Chorus are excellent and the stage directions give them every chance to be lively and animated.
Act III is dominated by the huge floor-to-ceiling hulk of the ship in the background. The set and stage directions on the Glyndebourne production allowed for a much more dramatic parade of the to-be-deported prostitutes. Act IV of course only requires a reddened evening desert sky and a stony floor. The most extravagant set is reserved for Act II. It is quite obvious that Manon is revelling in the most sumptuous luxury with silks and fine draperies, flunkies processing to spoil her with all kinds of sweetmeats, spoilt by a fawning dancing master and singing teachers.
Throughout Muti supplies a beautiful, romantic, detailed orchestral backdrop. Just a pity I cannot dispel the memory of Sinopoli’s white-hot performance of the opera’s Intermezzo on Decca 440 200-2 2CDs (1993).
Guleghina shines as an alluring, street-wise Manon. She is strongly partnered by an ardent José Cura.
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