Once in a while I will treat myself to a trip to the opera. Of course everyone has opinions on that. Sadly, most people think opera is terribly dull, elitist and highbrow. In fact it’s pretty much the same price as a football match and I find the whole business of sets, costumes, orchestra, singing and grand theatre anything but dull. And so last night I went to a performance of Massenet’s Manon at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
Vanessa Stone, the papercut girl accompanied me which made for an especially lovely evening. We both felt the strange sets left something to be desired and spent the intervals redesigning in our minds. I have no doubt we’d have done a better job; perhaps one day we can prove it!
But the big draw was the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. She has a tendancy to cancel so we were much relieved when she turned up. And she WAS sensational, rich warm low notes at one extreme, with the lazer-like brilliance of her high D at the other. The fact that she’s also rather beautiful certainly helped the audience believe in the story of Prevost’s young girl, destined for the convent, who is seduced by men and money and becomes the toast of Paris, only to end up arrested as a woman of ill-repute. It all goes badly wrong of course, and she dies in the gutter. I suppose she’s a sort of operatic “it” girl, who burns herself out, and is led astray by some very inadvisable men. In many ways the misogynistic elements of the story are just as pertinent today. Nevertheless she herself turns her back on true love, for it comes entwined with poverty.
But the real thrill for me was a new young tenor, Vittorio Grigolo, as the idealistic des Grieux, who is loved and then spurned by naughty Manon. I don’t think I can recall hearing such a beautiful tenor voice for a very long time. He’s a dashing presence on stage as well, but regardless of looks, he has a stunning voice. His delicate singing in the famous “dream” aria was heart-stoppingly lovely.
At the curtain call there were roars and flowers and stamping of feet, and Vanessa and I came away all topped up with beauty and light and wallowing in the quality of such phenomenal talent. But with a bitter-sweet aftertaste – after all, ’tis a terrible tale…
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