Release Date: 02 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943120323
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: MASSENET
Description
Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)ManonJules Massenet wrote some forty operas but today only Manon has a sure foothold on the stage, although Werther is highly esteemed and a few others are produced from time to time. The secrets of Manon’s success are not difficult to discern: it has a strong story, with superb rôles for the prima donna and the leading man, and the music is by turns charming, lyrical and dramatic. Manon herself is given music that is both beautiful and memorable, and two of her contributions, one of them the gavotte that was a late addition to the score, are often heard on their own. The tenor’s two arias also have an even healthier life outside the opera. The work was the second to be based on the novel Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (1697-1763), who had been a Benedictine monk but had broken his vows and gone into exile in England and Holland. The 1856 opéra comique by Auber had not been a success, so Massenet felt able to suggest the topic to the famous librettist Henri Meilhac in 1881 (later Puccini would commandeer it for his first great success). With Philippe Gille joining Meilhac as collaborator, the sprawling story was condensed, the major change being that Manon’s death occurred in France rather than America. Lescaut was made Manon’s cousin rather than her brother. The opera was completed during 1882 and orchestrated in the first half of 1883 — Massenet actually composed some of the music in The Hague, staying in rooms which had once been occupied by Prévost. Although the piece was designated an opéra comique, it had the minimum of dialogue; Massenet did, however, compose some passages in melodrama (speech over music). He also left a version with sung settings of the spoken passages. The première took place at the Paris Opéra-Comique on 19th January 1884 and the following year Manon was heard in Liverpool and New York. It quickly became popular. The Chevalier Des Grieux has been sung by Enrico Caruso, Fernand Ansseau, André D’Arkor, Henri Legay, Nicolai Gedda and Alain Vanzo, while among the famed exponents of Manon have been Geraldine Farrar, Fanny Heldy, Maggie Teyte, Ninon Vallin and Victoria de los Angeles. The present recording is a showcase for another notable Manon, Germaine Féraldy. It was not the first notable set to appear — Pathé had made one in 1923 with Heldy — but it was the first in really good sound and two generations of record collectors learnt the opera from it. Even today it has not been surpassed. Inevitably the 78rpm recording now sounds dated but the performance itself is such a magnificent example of teamwork and style that it can still give more pleasure than any other. Under the baton of Elie Cohen, the superb cast sing in a conversational fashion that is a lost art today. The ‘highlights’ are not thrown away but they take their natural place in the scheme of things, r
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Tullio Serafin
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