WHOA NELLY! Beczala Stole THIS Show!

Wednesday was the encore simulcast of Jules Massenet's opera Manon.  Russian soprano Anna Netrebko the title role.  Polish tenor Piotr Beczala sang Manon's lover Chevalier des Grieux (I'll talk about him later). 
  
I'd like to say something about the production and a misconception the director had first (just to get it out of the way).  Laurent Pelly, the same Frenchman who did the current Met production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment, updated Massenet's opera to the 1880's.  He talks about people's fascination with dangerous women during that time period.  He compared Manon to such women as Violetta in La Traviata and Carmen whom he describes as "great heroines who violate the rules of their bourgeois society and are sacrificed to a hostile male culture".  Sorry M. Pelly, but your comparison doesn't work.  First off, they are not "great heroines".  "Great heroines" would be women like Isolde or Aida (Grand Opera heroines).  Violetta isn't a great heroine and she is not sacrificed to male-dominated culture.  She dies of tuberculosis.  And Carmen definitely doesn't fit the description because she's poor as a rat, a smuggler, and she knows she's dangerous and revels in it.  She also is a gypsy from Spain, which had absolutely no middle class until a hundred years ago.  And Carmen is killed by a jealous lover, not a male-dominated culture. 

There.  I'm done ranting; now for the important stuff.

Manon is about a foolish teenage girl whose desire to have it all destroys both her and her lover.  Here is a breif overview of the plot:
        Manon is a fifteen-year-old country girl whose relative in charge of taking care of her doesn't want anything to do with her, so he's dumping her off at a convent (she doesn't have a calling).  When the carriage stops at an inn on the way there, Manon meets the young Chevalier des Grieux, the son of a count.  The two immediately fall in love at first sight (they actually share their first kiss mere minutes after they meet!).  But Manon has also seen some upper-class women in fancy dresses and thinks about how wonderful it would be to live only for pleasure.  She and des Grieux hijack a carriage and elope to Paris where they live together for quite some time.  During that time, Manon turns sixteen.  After des Grieux is kidnapped by his father's men (Papa clearly doesn't approve), Manon leaves to become the mistress of a wealthy aristocrat who gives her jewels and fancy clothes.  Pretty soon she's the toast of the town, the girl on the go, and the type of woman everybody should know; and is absolutely enjoying her popularity.  But when she hears one day that des Grieux has entered the priesthood, she goes to the church to find him.  des Grieux is unpset with her for giving up on him, but she seduces him back to her.  They live together again, but their relationship hits the rocks due to Manon's taste for luxury and soon they are out of money.  When Manon suggests that des Grieux try gambling to get money, he reluctantly complies and has ridiculously good luck.  But his luck and Manon's doesn't last long, and both are arrested.  des Grieux will be released later, but Manon will be deported to America as a loose woman.  Days later, when Manon is dragged to the dock to wait deportation, her cousin Lescaut bribes the guards to release her for while so that she can be reunited with des Grieux before she leaves.  Manon feels guilty and begs forgivness for all the pain she has caused des Grieux.  He assures her of his love.  Unfortunately, Manon became ill while she was in prison and finally dies in her lover's arms.  

What stole the show for me was Piotr Beczala's interpretation of des Grieux.  Good Goshness!  That guy looked and sounded so handsome  it was ridiculous.  I think it helps that he looks way younger than he really is (he's in his forties and still looks like he's twenty-seven).  I had never seen him live before (even though this was an encore) and so I was completely caught off-guard.  

There were two scene that I really liked and in which I thought that Piotr was at his best in the performance.  The first on was Act 2, in which Manon and des Grieux are living together and are happy.  This scene was just adorable.  des Grieux was sitting on the steps of the little apartment writing a letter to his father about how much he loves Manon.  Both he and Manon looked like they were relaxing after a long day.  As Manon, Anna wore what looked like a shift that went to the knees.  Piotr was wearing a white shirt and black pants.  Neither one of them had shoes on.  I thought that Piotr's acting in that scene was just something else.  He sang des Grieux's letter writing scene so wonderfully that I actually was wishing I had him for a boyfriend (I think that may have been the intended effect).  And when Manon is panicked when she hears men knocking at the door at the end of the act (she'd been told ahead of time about the kidnapping but hadn't said anything about it) des Grieux simply says "I'll send them away politely."  Piotr was so convincing in channeling his character's lack of knowledge that it hurt to see him taken away.

The other scene was the St. Sulpice scene where des Grieux is trying to forget Manon by becoming a pastor.  Piotr was wearing the traditional black robe for this scene.  I loved how he communicated des Griuex's hurt and largely unsuccessful attempts to drive his memories of  Manon out of his brain.  And when he is finally won over by Manon, he gets onto his bed with her, and Manon for some reason pulls the upper part of the pastoral robe aside to reveal Beczala's pecs (what in the deep was that for?).  

Piotr could not have gotten any handsome than he did Wednesday night.  He will be returning next season to perform the role of the lascivious Duke of Mantua is Verdi's Rigoletto.  This one I gotta see.