Auber: Manon Lescaut

Day 224

Auber: Manon Lescaut

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra of the Radio France

Jean-Pierre Marty

This is the second in my series of operas by the ‘wrong’ composer. I’m rather fond of Auber - I discovered him at university when I was fortunate enough to conduct a performance of la Muette di Portici. His Manon Lescaut is a comparatively late work (1856) and bridges the period between the world of Cherubini and of Offenbach. It has the typical mix of styles that one finds in Opéra Comique,with some very light and attractive music sitting alongside some really quite impressively serious moments. The end, in particular, is highly dramatic and would not be out of place in once of the big Meyerbeer operas. In fact this was the first work to be put on at the Opéra Comique theatre which had a tragic ending. At this stage of his career Auber had a complete mastery of the stage and the whole opera has a real pace and sense of dramatic momentum, though punctuated by moments where the drama does stop to give the soprano time to show off. Although the opera fell out of the repertory fairly quickly one number, the laughing song in the first act finale, remained a favourite of coloratura sopranos and many of the most famous names have recorded it. Otherwise taste changed and after Massenet and Puccini had in turn written their Manon operas there was certainly no place in the repertoire for a third Manon opera. But at least we can hear Auber’s version on record and I was delighted to make its acquaintance after previously only having known the laughing song.