# First Round: Manon: Adieu, Notre Petite Table. De Los Angeles, Spani, Gheorghiu



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Second round will be Olivero and Fleming. I can do Sills if there is interest. She normally doesn't do well here.




J. Massenet: Manon: Adieu, Notre Petite Table · Victoria de Los Ángeles · Jules Émile Massenet




Jules Massenet MANON "Adieu notre petite table" (in italiano) Disco HMV data di incisione 1926.




Angela Gheorghiu - Manon: Adieu notre petite table - Madrid 2007


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Knowing full well that Gheorghiu is one of my top favorite sopranos I actually shocked myself.
But there was no denying the fact that VDLA had all the expression and beauty that the aria called for. Her feelings were felt from down deep.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I can't remember ever hearing a poor performance of this aria, but even in great company Victoria de los Angeles gives us something special. She captures fully the delicacy, intimacy and sadness of the moment. The others are fine, but I suspect this contest has begun at the top.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I think Gheorghiu has a cleaner recording of this aria; here, she is live with a recording plagued with reverberation and atmosphere that obscures some of her sound, making it difficult to hear. It may be also be too late for her.

Spani sings in Italian, but still manages to convey *Manon*’s femininity and strength, for all that she maintains that she is all weakness and fragility; morally, perhaps. The Italian language sounds strange, as I’ve always heard it in French; even live, with Sills and Grist, coloratura sopranos both. It’s instructive to hear lyric sopranos tackle the role. Spani sings the recitative before the aria, as does Gheorghiu. Spani’s high C reveals a _caprino _sound which is not unattractive.

I’ve never succumbed to de los Angeles, the voice seemingly glassy and cold (somewhat like Janowitz, but less instrumental). Here she sounds deliberate, stretching out the phrases, carefully enunciating, like she’s still learning the music. Not for me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> I’ve never succumbed to de los Angeles, the voice seemingly glassy and cold (somewhat like Janowitz, but less instrumental). Here she sounds deliberate, stretching out the phrases, carefully enunciating, like she’s still learning the music. Not for me.


I listened again to see whether anything you've said here makes sense to me. "Stretching out the phrases" must refer to the slow tempo - it may be the slowest performance I've heard - but her singing is so specific and varied in its inflections that "still learning the music" doesn't describe it at all. This is a highly cultivated, thoughtful and concentrated interpretation. Her timbre may not please you, but don't miss what she's doing musically and dramatically. Follow her with the text. The aria is short, but Manon is lost in her memories, and I think we can hear her relive them as they drift through her mind. She is in no hurry to leave her little table behind!

Adieu, notre petite table Goodbye, our little table
Qui, nous réunit si souvent! At which we met so often!
Adieu, notre petite table, Goodbye, our little table
Si grande pour nous cependant! Yet so large for us!
On tient, c'est inimaginable, One thinks that it's unimaginable,
Si peu de place... en se serrant... So small a space...when we're embracing...
Adieu, notre petite table! Goodbye, our little table!
Un même verre était le nôtre, The same glass was ours,
Chacun de nous, quand il buvait, Each of us, when it was drunk from,
Y cherchait les lèvres de l'autre... There searched one set of lips for the other...
Ah! Pauvre ami, comme il m'aimait! Ah! Poor friend that loved me!
Adieu... notre petite table. Goodbye...our little table.


I think Spani is quite fine and rather intense, as she is in everthing I've heard her sing, but for me she's done with it just a bit too quickly. Gheorghiu is more emotive, but I can't hear her well enough. Neither makes as much of the words as VDLA.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> I can't remember ever hearing a poor performance of this aria, but even in great company Victoria de los Angeles gives us something special.... The others are fine, but I suspect this contest has begun at the top.


Oh, I think it wouldn't hurt to give a listen to Lucrezia Bori, Ninon Vallin, and Bidú Sayão --all of whom owned* the role in their time and place.

*Sorry, Mmes Heldy, Moore, and Albanese, but I have spoken


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