Switzerland Puccini, Manon Lescaut: Soloists, Extras Association of Zurich Opera, Zurich Opera Chorus, Philharmonia Zurich / Marco Armiliato (conductor). Zurich Opera, 8.2.2025. (MF)
This new Zurich production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut is a shot in the arm. Australian-German director Barrie Kosky, uninterested in showing the usual clichés of the tavern, the students and Manon in her boudoir, sees Puccini’s operas as ‘fever dreams’.
We are inclined to believe that Kosky’s perception ties in with 35-year-old Puccini’s ambition when he set out to compose this opera. In the late 1880’s, after having produced two flops with Le Villi and Edgar, he felt Manon Lescaut (originally an eighteenth-century French novel by Abbé Prévost) would be just right for his first hit. He defied doubts and warnings, not least from his publisher Ricordi, who feared it was overly bold to opt for the story Jules Massenet had successfully set to music only a few years earlier. Puccini was having none of these qualms, stating audaciously that Massenet had treated the theme ‘like a Frenchman, with powder and menuet. I, however, am going to treat it like an Italian: with desperate passion!’ His Manon Lescaut, with a libretto by no less than eight authors including the composer, premiered in Turin in February 1893 and proved all the doubters wrong. Puccini had his hit and imposed himself as Verdi’s successor whose last work, Falstaff, opened in the same month.
The plot oscillates between the poles of pure love and empty materialism. Manon, fleeing confinement to a convent for a life of luxury, falls in love with the noble Des Grieux. The desire for wealth leads her into the arms of lecherous and rich Geronte. Manon’s pursuit of pleasure and wealth culminates in her arrest and exile to America, where Des Grieux follows her, and the tragic end awaits. Des Grieux remains by her side as she dies, a victim of her own desires and the harsh world around her.
Kosky shares Puccini’s passion for staging raw emotion, the focus is not on the depiction of realism. Rufus Didwiszus’s set is an essentially empty stage with a seemingly interminable grey industrial concrete wall against which the protagonist couple’s journey to death progresses. In each of the first three acts, the story unfolds from and on a different horse-drawn carriage guided by coachmen with a grinning skull – and let us not forget the half dozen lifelike horses created by Zurich opera’s technical department! In the third act, Manon and other captured women, about to be dispatched across the Atlantic, are kept and moved around in cages resembling stacked shipping containers. No more horses then in the final fourth act, Manon and Des Grieux are in America and must now pull the cart themselves. The lighting (by Franck Evin) plays with oversized shadows leaving us wondering whether we might be trapped in a cave allegory.
The male protagonists’ costumes (by Klaus Bruns) are sober, with Des Grieux, Geronte and Lescaut clad in grey or navy business suits. Manon’s attire evolves from a floral summer dress, via a Pompadour-like ballgown to torn rags in the final scene. Chorus and extras who frequently appear to illustrate, or comment on, the action are brightly dressed. They wear masks inspired by the surrealistic symbolist James Ensor, a Belgian painter and a contemporary of Puccini’s. Their appearances convey an air of danses macabres.
All the spectacle, fanfare and noise notwithstanding, Barrie Kosky embraces Puccini’s subtle and differentiated approach in particular to Manon’s character. Unlike in Abbé Prévost’s original, this Manon is not a woman who falls for the simple allure of money and jewels. Kosky portrays her as emancipated, self-empowered and ambivalent. She wants money, she wants to choose her husband, to be the master of her destiny. Her aim is not to be likeable; she dares to be in charge of her life. That does not exclude failure, or even death as the ultimate outcome. Given the current political developments across the globe, what a frightening and timely message.
Indeed, Elena Stikhina gave a profoundly moving Manon, capturing both the character’s youthful confidence and cheekiness and her tragic downfall with stunning vocal nuance. Her deep emotional commitment made the title heroine’s journey through the various stages nothing short of compelling. While it is beyond doubt that anyone would instantly fall for tenor Saimir Pirgu’s passionate vocal performance as Des Grieux, his acting does not quite embody the irresistible heartthrob yet. Then again, this may well have been deliberate on Kosky’s part, highlighting Manon’s autonomy. The sublime protagonist couple’s musical feat is a tough act to follow. Still, Shavleg Armasi as Geronte in particular, and Konstantin Shushakov as Manon’s brother Lescaut, gave strong performances, as did Siena Licht Miller with her rich mezzo-soprano. As a musician, her body is painted gold – a reference to Midas, or James Bond, reminding us that an overdose of greed can be fatal?
Conductor Marco Armiliato and the Philharmonia Zurich bring out the full range of Puccini’s musicality in this ‘imperfect masterpiece’ (Kosky). Dynamism, action, the irony of the eighteenth-century parody in the second act, varying tempo – it is all there. Armiliato and the orchestra’s intonation illustrates that with this opus the crown of Italian opera passes from Verdi to Puccini, as the programme notes put it.
The couple of timid boos on premiere night for Barrie Kosky and his team were almost entirely drowned out by the cheers and made the applause all the more interesting. The overwhelming majority of the audience leapt to their feet for a standing ovation. Performances run until 22 March 2025.
Michael Fischer
Production:
Director – Barrie Kosky
Stage design – Rufus Didwiszus
Costumes – Klaus Bruns
Lighting designer – Franck Evin
Video – Ilya Shagalov
Chorus master – Ernst Raffelsberger
Dramaturgy – Fabio Dietsche
Cast:
Manon Lescaut – Elena Stikhina
Lescaut – Konstantin Shushakov
Des Grieux – Saimir Pirgu
Geronte – Shavleg Armasi
Edmondo- Daniel Norman
The innkeeper – Valeriy Murga
A musician – Siena Light Miller
The dance master – Álvaro Diana Sanchez
Ninetta – Tomislav Jukic
A commander – Samson Setu