Sweet dreams

[muckefuck]

Tonight I did something at the opera I've only done twice before: I left early. I hasten to add that it's not that I wasn't enjoying myself, but I was sleepy as hell and it seemed a good moment to go. As far as I know, Manon and the Chevalier lived happily ever after in peace and contentment and I don't need anyone telling me anything different. (I'm looking at you, bunj--the last man standing after e. left with tummy trouble and Nuphy begged off because of an early class the next morning.)

bunj has been calling this "the good Manon" and that's very accurate. It certainly caused me to revise my generally poor opinion of Massenet hitherto. Sure, I heard a lot of Gounod in his music, but also Strauss and even Wagner. Nuphy does tend to rave on about Nathalie Dessay, but she really can do no wrong. I'll add some more comments about staging and such later, but suffice to say they came up with some good solutions to the whole "chorus on, chorus off" problem that bedevils 19th-century opera.

Comments

[bunj.livejournal.com]

I'd also have to give mad props to Jonas Kaufmann, who I liked at least as much as Dessay.

You didn't miss out on much. The last two acts aren't as strong as the first three. There was lots of good staging, though. Good direction gave the Hotel Transylvania the decadence it needed, and I was impressed at how well lighting changes and some falling snow could create the road to Le Havre.

I never did figure out if there was any significance to the Act III ballet being the story of Actaeon. Sure, there's the whole "bewitching woman brings a decent guy to ruin" angle, but there are plenty of stories that could do that. Wikipedia says there was a 1683 French ballet called Actéon, so it may have been a reference to that.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I do love a good staging, but as it was I didn't get to sleep until 12:30 or so. How was your trip home?

[bunj.livejournal.com]

How was your trip home?

Slow. Two southbound trains went by as I waited for a northbound, but they had us on the southbound tracks for part of the journey, so maybe they were taking turns while they worked on part of the track (will they ever be finished? The answer is no). I got home about quarter after twelve, but was asleep not long after you were.