Puccini, Manon Lescaut: Soloists, chorus & orchestra of San Francisco Opera, Donald Runnicles (cond), War Memorial Opera House 19.11.2006 (HS)

 

 

 

CAST

Manon Lescaut: Karita Mattila

Des Grieux: Misha Didyk

Lescaut: John Hancock

Geronte: Eric Halfvarson

Edmondo: Sean Panikkar

 

 

PRODUCTION

Conductor: Donald Runnicles

Production Designer: Frank Philipp Schlossmann

Stage Director: Olivier Tambosi

Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler

 

 

Karita Mattila as Manon

 

 Finnish soprano Karita Mattila has grown exponentially as Puccini's Manon Lescaut since I saw her last year at Lyric Opera of Chicago. In Sunday afternoon's opening performance at San Francisco Opera of the same Chicago production, she looked and sounded infinitely more comfortable in the role.

American audiences know Mattila for her roles in Strauss (Salome, Arabella), Wagner (Elsa, Eva) and even Janacek (Kat'a Kabanova), but have not seen much Puccini or Verdi from her. And off of her relatively colorless if pretty singing in Chicago, impetuous, passionate Italian heroines didn't seem to be her thing.

What a difference a year makes. This time around she sang with the sort of true Italianate gleam that was missing in Chicago. She looked every bit the frightened girl in Act I, the louche gold-digger in Act II, and the desperate, branded convict in Acts III and IV, winning her audience over with a toss of her head or the man-hungry body language when Des Grieux, the poor lover she tossed aside to live with the rich Geronte, reappears.

 

Karita Mattila (Manon) and Misha Didyk (Des Grieux)

 

But most of all, it was the singing. Phrases that ran past with minimal inflection in Chicago came to life in San Francisco. She varied the attack to string together some melodic gestures like pearls and spit out others with a rapier cut. She caught the gentle lilt of "In quelle trine mobile" perfectly. "Sola, perduta, abbondonata" emerged as an intrinsic part of the final scene rather than a star moment for the leading soprano because the desperation in her body transmitted itself into the voice.

Credit conductor Donald Runnicles for at least some of that. He whipped up thrilling sounds from the orchestra, creating real red-blooded passion. The Intermezzo also emerged as a real musical essay.  This was by far the best combination of music, singing, acting and production values seen on the SFO stage this season.

 

 

John Hancock (Lescaut) and Karita Mattila

As Des Grieux Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk overcame a rocky start, in which he pushed his not very large voice beyond its boundaries to try to fill the large War Memorial Opera House. He fairly shouted "Donna no vidi mai" in Act I, making some ugly sounds, but by the Act II duet he had found a better balance. In Acts III and IV, performed without intermission, he got it right. His tenor sounded free and unblemished, even if he never made anything like a glorious sound.

As Lescaut, Manon's mercenary brother, American baritone John Hancock brought a strong stage presence and solid singing, even if he covered some of the high notes. As Geronte, the American bass Eric Halfvarson looked and sounded appropriately oily. Of the smaller roles, the standout was Sri Lankan tenor Sean Panikkar, currently an Adler Fellow in the company's development program. A handsome man with café-au-lait skin and a devilish smile, he deployed a silvery tenor in the opening scene's "Tra voie, belle, brune e bionde," and it was difficult to understand why any of the girls could resist.

Maybe it was the extra year, or maybe it was Runnicles’ vigorous music-making, but director Olivier Tambosi got energetic, natural acting across the board, from the stars down to the last supernumerary. That wasn't the case when he directed Mattila and this same production in Chicago.

Ah yes, the production. The opening courtyard, filled with pushcarts, dining tables, young men fencing and gossiping students on balconies, made an impression but never got in the way of the key moments. The all-blue bedroom in Act II may have been a bit much, but it worked. The realistic, rundown dockhouse in Act III framed the action there nicely. For the final scene, a couple of clumps of rocks and a mid-stage blue scrim sufficed on a sand-filled stage.

Puccini's first operatic hit is an outpouring of melody, one memorable tune after another. This is not one where you walk out humming the scenery. With this cast, conductor and orchestra, I just emerged into the soft autumn San Francisco evening smiling.

 

 

Harvey Steiman

 

 

Pictures © Terrence McCarthy 2006