The most sordid Puccini at the Liceu

Manon Lescaut It always works if this opera is presented in a production that perfectly captures its essence: an apotheosis of melodrama, like virtually the entirety of Puccini's catalog. In the last twenty years, the Liceu has presented three different productions of Puccini's third opera, based on the novel The History of the Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut of theabbot Prévost. A story also inspired by the operas of Auber, Massenet, and Henze. Now, Puccini's version has returned to the Rambla. A production of the Frankfurt Opera, with stage direction by Àlex Ollé and part of his usual team: set designer Alfons Flores, costume designer Lluc Castells and lighting designer Joachim Klein.

Ollé chooses to portray Manon as a victim of exploitation from the moment she becomes an undocumented immigrant. From then on, her decline is complete, culminating in utter loneliness in a Louisiana desert that, in this production, is a vast empty space, dominated only by the four letters of the word. LOVEThe same one we saw with the neon lights of the filthy place where the protagonist and her companions are forced to prostitute themselves and dance on the bar. pole dance.

The idea is good, but not all the acts are well executed. The intense direction of the actors and the character development work, especially the portrayal of a fragile, compassionate Manon, which Asmik Grigorian brings to life with a sensational stage presence. He also delivers a demanding vocal performance with sinuous passages such as Il quelle trine morbideThe Lithuanian soprano is not strictly a spintobut finds the necessary resources to solve a Alone, lost, abandoned intense and convincing.

Beside him, Ivan Gyngazov's Des Grieux displays a generous timbre, not particularly beautiful but certainly committed to the melodramatic purpose Puccini presents in the score. Yurii Samoilov's Lescaut is very good (improving as the performance progresses), and Donato Di Stefano's Geronte is well-suited to a thankless role, but one for which his bass makes the most of both musically and dramatically.

Among the supporting cast, Filipo Filipović (Edmondo) delivers a strong performance, and, as we have come to expect, the delightful Mercedes Gancedo (musician) is also noteworthy, who is now due to give a leading role at the Liceu.

Before the orchestra and the principal conductor—less fortunate than we've come to expect from him this season—Josep Pons's baton worked in his favor. He's not a conductor particularly inclined towards Italian opera, and it shows, because he portrays Puccini with an excessive symphonic approach. And at times, this overshadows voices that—it must be said—have to move within a set that's too open on the immense stage of the Liceu. But, conversely, the conductor from Puig-reig opts for remarkable attention to detail in many moments, particularly successful in the prelude to the third act and the beginning of the second. Puccini's miniaturism is a constant in the composer from Lucca, and not all conductors are aware of it. Pons is. And how! And the orchestral sections were in top form throughout the entire performance, without faltering.

We said at the beginning that Manon Lescaut It's the apotheosis of melodrama, but the spectacle must serve this idea. It does in this case, even if it's not a flawless production. And yet, it works.