Friday, June 27, 2014

Come on Manon, let's go!

I used to think (in my young childhood*) the opera was called Manon, Let's Go. And it's not totally nonsensical. I mean, when you think about it, that's basically what Des Grieux and Lescaut say to her in Act 2 while she's busy scooping up her jewelry instead of running from the police. 

Anyway, the reason for this post is to highlight the bounty of "making of" videos the ROH has posted for their new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut. (This was Puccini's first big hit. Apparently, he could easily have retired and lived off his profits from Edgar and Manon. But fortunately, he didn't rest on his laurels, or he never would have written La Boheme, and a few other big hits!)

Blogger eyesometric provides us with a bunch of other links about this production, and also reminds us that the BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a live performance of this new production from the ROH featuring Kristine Opolais, Jonas Kaufmann, and Christopher Maltman with Anthony Pappano waving the stick. 

Meanwhile, here are those videos:



*Yes, I was already listening to opera as a young child. I used to record the Met broadcasts on my reel-to-reel for frequent playback. One that I listened to over and over was an Ariadne with Tatiana Troyanos and…well, I didn’t care about who else was in it at that point. 

8 comments:

  1. "Manon, Let's Go" strikes me as a perfect title for a techno remix of Puccini.

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    1. That can be the b-side to my techno "non piu di fiori." (to readers who are not earworm, I was listening to Vesselina Kasarova on my iPod one day. I walked into the frozen yogurt store that always plays techno music just as VK was hitting the final 4/4 repeat of the main "non piu di fiori" theme. The desperation in her delivery matched the driving techno beat quite well actually!)

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  2. Troyanos is my favourite Composer, she's exactly how I imagine him - very earnest and soppy romantic. Even as I think about it I want to give her/him a hug. I wish that production was more interesting.

    I'm going to have to listen to Non piu di fiori now and try to imagine a techno beat over-imposed. Now that I think it about, it might be hilarious to give it a reggae bounce. That basset horn calls for it.

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    1. Thinking back, I also remember Nico Castell as the Haushofmeister, thinking he was pretty good. I have the DVD with Battle and Norman, but this recording was a few years before that. (I am OLD) Same production (which doesn't make much difference in a radio broadcast. My research suggests that it was 1976. Montserrat Caballé was Ariadne and Ruth Welting made her debut as Zerbinette; Alan Titus (what's he up to these days?) also debuted as Harlekin.

      I am not a fan of turning classical tunes into dance music but I think we definitely need to give it a try. I mean, Non piu di fiori can certainly stand up to a bit of irreverence, can't it?

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    2. I see, that was before my time ;-) in any case, I'm sure Toryanos was good in 1976 as well.

      I agree, classical + pop beat = disaster but I love playing around with things for laughs. I also see Deh, se piacer mi vuoi "benefit" from a jazzy treatment (I need to look up the jazziest DSPMV out there - what a terrible task, eh?) but that's for another time. I'm going to do something to Non piu di fiori this week hopefully.

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    3. Now, THAT I'd like to hear. I can imagine DSPMV either in a snappy big band version, or a very vampy blues.

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  3. I tinkered with it for a while today but that Non piu di fiori experiment was a bust. I should've used a different version (I used the VK one and the real outcome of the experiment was me realising how much I like it) and reggae rather than hip hop but I couldn't find my reggae beats.

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    1. That IS a wonderful performance. I still think it would work with a heavy techno track. :-)

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