# Anyone Watch "Manon" Live from the Met in HD on Saturday With Netrebko and Beczala?



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

*Anyone Watch "Manon" Live from the Met in HD on Saturday With Netrebko and Beczala?*

Curious in what location you were in while watching. I was in Southwest Virginia USA. You?

Regarding the production, I thought Netrebko's costumes (and the ladies' gowns in general) were fabulous! I have never been a huge fan of Netrebko. She seems like a lyric soprano to me trying too hard (and sometimes totally unsuccessfully) to sing coloratura roles. Both her recent _Anna Bolena_ and _Lucia _renditions Live From the Met came across that way to me. In _Manon_ too, she managed the "Je marche sur tous les chemins" and "Obéissons quand leur voix appelle" rather ham-handedly, blasting out a couple of flat high notes. Nonetheless, she did do a good deal of beautiful singing in the more lyric bits, and I thought her acting was superb. And she found some of those high notes later in the day. I found myself grudgingly liking her more. Nonetheless, I have to ask, can't the Met find any coloraturas for those roles?

Tenor Piotr Beczala, I thought, sang and acted gorgeously and in character from beginning to end, extremely musical, torn between love for Manon and repulsion at who she really is. His wonderful _voix mixte _sounded like a true French tenor and reminded me more than once of a young Nicolai Gedda in tone. Paolo Szot's acting as the cousin Lescaut was cartoonish in the extreme, but he sang attractively.

These are my opinions, what are yours? :tiphat:


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

I think I might agree with you here on Netrebko, I wasn't sure myself based on the applause both in the theater and at the Met, I was like why are they applauding so enthusiastically? But based on my own unsurety I kind of went along with the applause too. But I must say that I don't think she was that BAD.... it was hardly noticible in my book. And I didn't notice anything bad at all about Pauolo Szot's acting, though having not read the libretto or synopsis before hand, I may have been trying too hard to read the subtitles in my very bad spanish to pay too much attention. 

Btw I was in Mexico city. And there was a brief, like 2 second interruption in the video at one point but the sound was uninterrupted. Did anyone else experience that?


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

One more thing I'd like to add. Although not my favorite opera, I did enjoy it very much. I must say that Manon had the best albeit brief recitatives of any opera. Maybe it was just the french accent that i liked so much, but french accents sound better spoken, not sung.


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## Darkhawk (Jun 7, 2011)

I was really worried about the production design, but was pleasantly surprised. I'd never seen this before, but I thought the design worked overall pretty well (with the exception of the extraneous ramp during the ballet scene.... just so awfully in the way). Anna was great, as was Piotr. Don't know if it's always the case, but in this it was certainly hard to sympathise with Manon. 

... I took someone to her first ever opera broadcast, and she enjoyed it too!


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Barelytenor said:


> In _Manon_ too, she managed the "Je marche sur tous les chemins" and "Obéissons quand leur voix appelle" rather ham-handedly, blasting out a couple of flat high notes.


Hah, I do agree a bit. When Natalie Dessay sings "Suis-je gentille, ainsi?" the audience is beguiled into agreeing with her. When Ms. Netrebko asks, you agree because to do otherwise is to risk being pounded into submission


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