Giacomo Puccini was right on time. With Italy’s greatest opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi, in the twilight of his career, it appeared the country’s status as an operatic epicenter might end with the close of the 19th century.
Then along came Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” in 1893, and the tradition suddenly seemed in safe hands. The up-and-coming composer took an 18th-century French novel and turned it into the kind of passionate paean to desperate, uncontrollable love for which Verdi was known. One memorable melody after another filled the score, its central characters sending notes soaring and the audience’s pulses racing.
And that’s exactly what the Minnesota Opera’s exceptional season-opening production of “Manon Lescaut” accomplishes. Borne aloft by the powerful and intensely expressive voices of Kelly Kaduce and Dinyar Vania as the lovers at the center of the story, it’s a staging that captures well the class conflicts that propel Antoine-Francois Prevost’s novel, underlining the cost-benefit analysis involved in making a choice between love and money.
Well, you probably know where an Italian romantic would come down on that question, but director Michael Cavanaugh makes it more a matter of debate than you might expect. For the title character, Manon, is but 18 years old and on her way to the convent when she encounters offers of devoted love from a dashing student and a lifestyle of the rich and kept with the bewigged and powdered treasurer general. She tries to choose both with tragic consequences.
Minnesota Opera’s production admirably conveys historical accuracy without draining the hot blood from the conflict. Yes, there’s a fair amount of minuetting in tights, gowns and gilded surroundings (kudos to the sets and costumes of John Pascoe), but each character is delivered with depth and detail. Kaduce brings out the kid in Manon, making her immaturity and impetuousness fairly forgivable, while Vania’s des Grieux brings a believable subtlety to a lover wrestling with devotion and betrayal. And Andrew Wilkowske is an impressive combination of raw and refined as the dandy who takes Manon for his mistress.
All of the leads use their strong, supple voices to excellent effect, but the Minnesota Opera Orchestra is equally striking. Under Michael Christie’s dynamic direction, it makes a convincing case that Puccini was as much a master of melody in his orchestration as in his arias, even at this early stage of his career. No wonder the Italians fell in love with him as quickly as des Grieux does Manon.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.
What: Minnesota Opera’s production of “Manon Lescaut”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $200-$20, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org
Capsule: A first-class take on a class-conscious opera.
