José Cura in Plovdiv: I am very impressed with how this city has relied on its history

Podtepeto

Tanya Grozdanova

The Rough Guide Translation

"Covid has leveled us all. They have zeroed the bills worldwide and I consider this a good thing."

"In the world of performances, we found it very difficult that we are needed, but maybe without us…"

In the pandemic, some good things have happened, such as stars coming from the world stage to the city on the hills. The world-famous tenor José Cura has been in Plovdiv since the beginning of the month. As we informed you a few days ago, he is rehearsing as a conductor with the Orchestra and the soloists of the State Opera the concert performance of Manon Lescaut, which the audience will be able to enjoy on April 15 and 17. The project is dedicated to Kamen Chanev, whom we lost as a result of the disease.

The outstanding artist José Luis Victor Cura Gomez was born on December 5, 1962, in the Argentine city of Rosario, the capital of the province of Santa Fe. He currently lives with his family in Spain and gives concerts around the world. This outstanding artist was a special guest at a press conference today, at which the director of Opera Plovdiv - Assoc. Prof. Nina Naidenova and the music director of the institution - maestro Dian Chobanov announced the program of the festival OPERA OPEN 2021.

Here is what Cura shared about the pandemic and its aftermath:

Covid is a big brutal. This crisis is a very ugly and bad thing, but it has had a good effect on the whole world. And especially in our work, because we all woke up one morning at zero. Suddenly it turned out that there are no big or small, and we are all human. Covid has zeroed the bills worldwide and I consider this to be a positive effect.

What changed him personally during the restrictions:

I just said it. Covid leveled us all on one level and gave us to understand something extremely important about the show business world, which the world discovered in a very painful way - we are necessary, but we are not unthinkable. That is, it can do without us. And this discovery somehow leveled the ego in show business. That doesn't seem bad to me. Now we will see how show business will capitalize on this discovery and this amazing lesson. How will you value it.

For his visit to Plovdiv:

I met maestro Dian Chobanov in 2016.

Dian is a very special person in this job. Usually the musical directors of the theaters always try to invite weaker colleagues so not to be overshadowed. This is something I have seen on a global level. Dian is the most unselfish person I have ever known! He always invites people he thinks are the best at the moment to work in his orchestra.

For the team of the State Opera - Plovdiv:

So I came here in 2019, knowing only Dian and met this lady next to me - Nina Naidenova.

She turned out to be not only a manager with great strength and great courage, but also an exceptional artist. And I suddenly said to myself: This theater, it has everything to function well. A wonderful orchestra; a choir with which, unfortunately, I will not be able to work now for reasons beyond our control, and at the last minute, unfortunately, we have to get rid of these people for Covid's sake, but I know them from Otello; we have one music director - capable and hearty and one leader - giant!

About # TOGETHER:

Today I am pleased to find that the city administration is willing to cooperate with this theater! So all the cards are fine. Now we have to get the job done. It is a pleasure to meet this quality of people and artists in this theater. So when Nina called me and asked, "Do you want to come again?" I immediately agreed. And here I am. This is only the beginning. Whenever you invite me, if I am free, I will come to you. Because at my age - 25 of course. 58 to be precise - and almost 40 years of career, I can now afford to work only with people with whom I can communicate at the level of heart, emotion.

When I come to Plovdiv it is for purely selfish motives - I do it for myself! Because it works well for me too.

Where did he stay in Plovdiv and what impressed him:

I am staying in a house in the Old Town. Yesterday I had my first day off and took a walk around. Not knowing where, because I don't know the city, I reached the Ancient Theater. And again I realized how beautiful this place is and how magical. Yes, I also saw the boulevard below, which is nice if it can be closed during performances.

It is at this place in July that I participate in the production of Tosca and there is a discussion for next year with the producer of Manon Lescaut. Let's first make this Manon Lescaut, which is our remembrance in honor of Kamen, who certainly looks down on us and approves and then we will think further.

Does anything in Plovdiv remind him of his hometown in Argentina:

Humidity. Rosario is one of the wettest cities in the world and I found that in Plovdiv it is very difficult to stay clean in the evening because of the humidity, of course as part of the joke.

 Plovdiv is a very busy city, Rosario is a 120-year-old city and we are like little children compared to Plovdiv.

On my walk I reached the hill Nebet Tepe. I saw these remains, which I have no idea how old they are. It's impressive how this city has relied entirely on its history!  I think that wherever you start digging in this city, you will find Romans who still eat spaghetti.

Memory of Kamen Chanev:

I knew Kamen personally, not as an artist, because he is well known internationally, but I met him as a person with a person when I came here to do Otello and I remember that he was at the rehearsals and he told me: "I want to sing Otello one day. I'm studying the party right now and watching you I'm learning twice as much." I am very happy that he managed to sing his Otello, although he left us shortly after, but he was extremely persistent and succeeded in this endeavor as well.

I am very good friends with his wife, with whom I now have more time to develop this friendship. When a man knows a man's wife he realizes what the other person next to him was like. And now, communicating and watching Tanya, the image of Kamen is complemented to me through her.  In that sense, it will be a very emotional concert!

Manon Lescaut - Origins

The original short novel, The Story of the Chevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost was published in 1731 as the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité.  Controversial in its time, it was banned in France but pirated editions were widely distributed. 

Although a minor character in the novel, Manon outgrew the constraints of the work to dominate the imagination of writers who came after Prévost as easily as she captured Des Grieux’s fancy. In the foreword to a 20th century edition of the story, writer Guy de Maupassant tried to explain her appeal: "In this figure, so full of seductiveness and instinctive perfidy,  the writer seems to have embodied all that is most pleasing, most tempting, and most infamous, of the creature woman!" In short, Prévost captured an archetype in Manon of a woman with the irresistible seductiveness and predatory nature of an Eve or a Lolita.

The story, however, is first and foremost about Des Grieux’s fall from grace and subsequent rehabilitation; Manon’s voice is never heard.  Her seduction of Des Grieux is instinctive–her beauty coupled with her free spirit and impulsivity are irresistible—but soon shows that within that thing of beauty lies a far darker creature whose self-aggrandizing and selfish nature will nearly destroy the ‘hero.’

We learn that Des Grieux is 17 years of age at the at the start of the story and the younger son a wealthy and landed man; he is in Amiens to study philosophy with the intention of either going into the Church or becoming a knight in a religious military order whose members take vows of chastity and obedience.  Those plans are changed when he first sees Manon and becomes ‘inflamed to the point of rapture.”

Manon, aged 15, has been sent to Amiens to become a nun, according to Des Grieux in a later recounting, “to check that predisposition to pleasure which had already declared itself.” Des Grieux convinces Manon to flee from her confinement in the nunnery.

They are in Paris for only a few weeks when Des Grieux notices Manon’s new and expensive clothing. Before he can take action, his family intervenes and imprisons him for several months. Des Grieux resolves to become a priest and returns to Paris to attend seminary.

Manon seeks him out. She expresses remorse, offers to leave her current lover, and convinces him to abandon the church for her. Through misadventures and a series of suspicious events, they lose their money. Facing poverty, Des Grieux successfully takes up gambling, under the tutelage of Lescaut, but money continues to disappear.  Lescaut, Des Grieux and Manon concoct a scheme to relieve a wealthy man of money and jewels. This intrigue goes awry, with Des Grieux and Manon being locked away; both are able to escape, though in the process Des Grieux kills a guard and Lescaut dies.

Before long Manon takes up with the son of wealthy man and returns to Paris as his mistress. Des Grieux plots to spend a night with her and of course this plot goes as disastrously wrong as all the others: both Manon and Des Grieux are sent to prison. Des Grieux is freed through the intercessions of his father. Manon is to be “shut up for the rest of her days, or sent to America.”

Des Grieux sells all his possessions and boards the ship to America with Manon.  They arrive in New Orleans where, as a young gentleman of quality, Des Grieux provides Manon with entrance to the society she craves:  he presents her to the Governor and she mingles with the elite of the city. In time, Des Grieux asks the Governor for permission to marry Manon but his petition is denied:  the Governor plans to give her to his nephew. Incensed, Des Grieux confronts his rival and they duel; Des Grieux wins but, fearing he has killed the governor’s nephew, flees the city with Manon. After traveling five miles, they collapse from exhaustion. At daybreak, Des Grieux discovers Manon is dying. She expires later that day. He buries her body so it would not be “exposed to the ravages of wild beasts” and collapses on her grave.

It is there that Des Grieux is found. The Governor’s nephew, it seems, is fine and all is well. In time Des Grieux comes to realize that his time with Manon had been a test and, having survived that test, he can finally become the man he was meant to be:

Heaven, after chastising me so severely, intended that I should benefit from my punishments and misfortunes…and reawakened in me ideas worthy of my birth and education.

Des Grieux eventually returns to France, where he makes his “way to the house of a gentleman-in-waiting to my parents, only a few miles outside the town.” Rescued from the new world and freed from the chains of Manon, he faces his destiny in France.

Manon Lescaut, Milan, June 1998:  “José Cura modulates his beautiful voice with great sensitivity of phrasing, like a true musician.”  La Repubblica

Manon Lescaut, Milan, June 1998:  “Less consistent but always with great style was the interpretation of José Cura in the part of the unfortunate lover; he phrases like a very fine musician but his voice sometimes tightens and some high notes are a bit forced. As an actor, he alternates between moments of great presence, favored by the power of his physique, with others of strange apathy as in the second act, when he enters Manon's salon after she has betrayed him as if headed somewhere else with something else on his mind.”  La Stampa

Manon Lescaut, Milan, June 1998:  “Des Grieux is José Cura, who, in a sense, was awaiting consecration from this trial at La Scala. With his dark, robust voice, solid in the release, Cura is effective and dramatically incisive in the declamatory passages of the third and fourth acts; however, he does not have the timbre or lyricism of the true Puccini lover. His technical domain is not strong enough to allow him to lighten, fade, vary and color as he should. He simply sings softly and loudly, with some recourse to sobs and veristic expressions that are not enough to give real warmth to his interpretation.”  Connessi all'Opera

Manon Lescaut, Milan, June 1998:  “The Argentinian tenor José Cura, despite the sex-appeal he seems to have for women in the audience, and his respectable voice, did not manage to give Des Grieux the presence and sound that make him the most important of all the Puccini tenor roles.”  Opera, October 1998

***

Manon Lescaut CD:  “Puccini's four act verismo masterpiece Manon Lescaut was his first great success, but already his melodic gift and theatrical savvy were fully formed. Des Grieux (robust tenor) and Manon (lyric soprano) are the twin pillars of this tragic romance. Argentinean tenor José Cura (Des Grieux) is touted as the next great Italianate tenor, with an excitingly powerful voice exuding the kind of Mediterranean virility (he's half-Lebanese) sadly lacking in many of today's canonized tenors. His singing is shamelessly melodramatic, full of sobs and growls, like some of the great Italian tenors of the past (Corelli, Del Monaco, et al.). Cura's voice is baritonal, which adds character to his middle and low ranges. His high notes are thrown with effort - but since they illustrate moments of emotional excess, strain is forgivable. On disc Cura has a lot to offer; on stage he's impossible to resist. In this recording, his entrance on the word "Amor" is viscerally stirring, and throughout the recording he sounds every inch the grand seigneur.”  La Scena Musicale

Manon Lescaut CD:  “This recording of Manon Lescaut is at least the equal of any I have ever heard, and I have heard them all …Maria Guleghina is partnered by a splendid Des Grieux, José Cura, a bit sluggish of voice in the first act, but he warms up fast. What can I say? Allowing for personal taste, I find his dark voice has enough ring to make it exciting, and he knows just how far he can stretch the character's lachrymose side without weakening him. One might slightly prefer the brilliance of Björling, the careless charm of di Stefano, the impressive, controlled passion of Domingo, all of them superb in the role, but he can be compared with them, and a few listeners may even prefer him . . . he's that good.”  Fanfare Magazine

Manon Lescaut CD:  “Manon Lescaut was Puccini's first mature opera as well as his first great "hit." It contains all the features of his musical ambiance (clear, effective orchestration, and that unique total vocal/orchestral flow that, although non-developmental, is truly symphonic in nature) even if the great signature melodies that dot his later works are still in a latent state. The vocal lines are splendidly effective, but, because they don't soar naturally, the responsibility for making them appear to do so is laid directly on the performers. On this "live" recording from La Scala (riotous applause) Muti and his excellent singers (José Cura, particularly fine as Des Grieux; Maria Guleghina a strong Manon, but slightly hesitant at times in her upper register) meet their responsibilities head on, with splendid playing by the orchestra.”  Andante

Manon Lescaut CD:  “This live recording from Teatro alla Scala features two of the exciting young voices in the world of opera, soprano Maria Guleghina and tenor José Cura. Cura sings the famous aria Donna non vidi mai with swelling ardor and warm, rich tone. This is a highly charged, dramatic recording.”  CDConnection

Manon Lescaut CD:  “[José] Cura, to be honest, is a gift from God. The international tenor scene looks a lot brighter with his arrival. He is intelligent, with a fantastically virile and emotive voice. He successfully portrays a man who is completely overcome by a self-destructive love for a woman who probably does not merit his passion. He is more heartbreaking than Manon in Acts Three and Four. Long may Cura sing. Although he was born in Argentina, he is a real "Italian" tenor.”  Classical Net

Manon Lescaut CD:  “The raison d'etre for the recording is probably the fame of new super-dude-tenor José Cura, and he does not disappoint. The voice is a hefty spinto, dark in color but very bright at the top. The sound itself is very attractive and Cura sings off the text well, shading his phrases from time to time with real concern. This is a set to return to often.”  ClassicsToday

Manon Lescaut CD:  “Few have seemed so ideally suited to the impulsive, obsessed Des Grieux as is José Cura, with his ardent, exciting singing.”  The Daily Telegraph London

Manon Lescaut CD:  “José Cura [is] as exciting a Des Grieux as we're likely to hear anytime soon. He certainly has the vocal goods, with a hot-coals burn, but he also perfectly balances youthful ardor with elegance and assurance...”  Dallas Morning News

Manon Lescaut CD:  “This live performance from June 1998 at La Scala is clearly banking on the star power of José Cura, who indeed makes his memorable mark on des Grieux. It's exactly the kind of role to absorb Cura's drawbacks (his moments of insecurity and odd phrasings) and let his strengths shine, and Cura uses his wonderfully dark, ardent tenor to embody des Grieux in all his helpless passion.”  Editorial Review AmazonUK

Manon Lescaut CD:  “José Cura makes a virile, ardent Count des Grieux, singing with strength and delicacy. In the deportation scene of Act III, the Argentine tenor characterizes with alarming dramatic intensity, but his refined vocalism and heroic tone carry him through.”  Sun Sentinel

Manon Lescaut CD:  “[T]his is surely one of the finest opera recordings of the year. Everything works well here: Muti imparts an atmosphere of drama with a fine sense for tempos and orchestral balances, and he coaxes some excellent performances from his singers. José Cura is both vocally and dramatically convincing. This is a fine recording…in the digital era I'm not sure this one can be bettered. This new DG issue can stand with the best, and it features full libretto (Italian/English) and intelligent notes.”  Classical Net Review

Manon Lescaut CD:  “Deutsche Grammophon has just embarked on a new collaboration with La Scala in Milan whose first fruit is a new live recording of Puccini's Manon Lescaut.  This recording is at its best in the two outer acts of the drama.  In the opening act, José Cura is delightful as the young lover.”  Jeursalem Post

Manon Lescaut CD, Milan, 1998:  “If I had played only Act 4 of this 1998 Scala production, I would think I was hearing an extraordinary performance. Guleghina and Cura are in great voice and excitingly and easily meet the challenge of each musical and dramatic climax. And Muti, who can be so annoyingly pedantic about the printed page, leads in an almost (for him) abandoned manner…Cura has a big voice that's made for Samson (I like his Erato version of this role) and I'd like to hear him in his Verdi repertory. Like Alagna, he's an extremely erratic singer with a questionable method of support. How else to explain his alteration of strained top notes with ones that are dead-on thrilling or his unnuanced phrases countered by ones of exquisite sensitivity?  [But] things come together for that terrific last act!”  American Record Guide

Manon Lescaut CD, Milan, 1998:  “Cura sings throughout with great vocal splendour, but with hardly a trace of elegance or poetry. It is typical of him that at the end of the Act 1 duet (Vinta tristezza dall'amor sara) he both insensitively ignores Puccini's piano marking and thereby robs himself of the ability to make the crescendo molto demanded three bars later.”  Gramophone

Manon Lescaut CD:  “We don't know what the temperatures were in Milan in June 1998 but the nights were hot in the Teatro alla Scala: you can hear that now on the new Manon Lescaut recording with Riccardo Muti.  The musicians play as if they were direct descendants of the protagonists, as if the tragic story of this superhuman love was part of their family history - and in José Cura's case, too, the role identification is one hundred percent effective.  The Argentinean, currently considered the world's most erotic tenor but otherwise little known for his assured taste, here brings his gifts to full development. His energetic, youthful impetuosity, his desire to sob, scream, moan - he is allowed to live it all out in the emotional turmoil of this performance.”  Der Tagesspiegel

Manon Lescaut CD, Milan, 1998:  “The chief interest here is José Cura, the hot young tenor from Argentina who has been creating a stir in houses around the world with his potent vocalism and smoldering good looks.  As Des Grieux he leaves a mixed impression.  There’s a dry, hooded quality to much of his singing in the lower range but when he has to exert himself in climaxes on high notes, he summons a thrilling, virile sound that puts him in the major leagues.”  Associated Press

Manon Lescaut CD, Milan, 1998:  “Des Grieux's role is, if possible, more vocally difficult than Otello's, due to its central and tense tessitura. Cura's timbre is attractive, manly, warm.  On this recording he is heard clearly and well, with unusual nuances in No! Pazzo son! sung in slow tempo but with great communication.”  El Cultural

Manon Lescaut CD:  “As Puccini chose to differentiate his Manon from Massenet's opera by, among other things, eliminating any domestic scene for the lovers, the burden of creating a believable Des Grieux/Manon relationship falls to the second half of the opera. Here the new performance succeeds quite well. The voice begins dryly in Act I–one of the potential downsides of capturing a live show—yet [José]Cura strives to create a living character, underlines text and occasionally really lets go and sings, as in the second act's Ah! Manon, mi tradisce il tuo folle pensier or Des Grieux's prayer, O Dio, a cui fanciullo in Act IV. Unfortunately, a lack of sustained legato intensity robs him of the build he aims for in Act III's desperate Guardate, pazzo son. Tempos can be crisp but are never rushed. And there is plenty of sweep, as well as room for expressive singing when called for. Recorded sound is excellent.”  Opera News

Manon Lescaut CD:  “This latest edition is a live recording from La Scala. There, two of the most exciting singers of the younger generation took to the stage, conducted by Riccardo Muti. But while Maria Guleghina (Manon) and José Cura (Des Grieux) can make you sit on the edge of your seat in the theater because of their strong theater personality, they come across as less convincing on record. There you can hear what their commitment in the theater sometimes makes you forget.” Der Standard

***

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Those interested in seeing [José Cura] in top form need look no further than the Scala video of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.  In addition to an incomparably beautiful reading by Riccardo Muti and the La Scala Orchestra (the last act, tinged with the ashen colors of death, is almost unbearably painful), the video preserves Cura’s remarkable debut as Des Grieux.  When asked what made his Manon different from Massenet’s, Puccini indicated that it was the prominence accorded the young chevalier, replying that he had “invested all [his] emotion in the voice of that man, wounded in his heart.”  It is precisely this quality of vulnerability, of devastating emotional honesty, that sets Cura’s Des Grieux apart.  Though Manon Lescaut has hardly lacked for distinguished tenor protagonists (Pertile, Bjoerling, and Domingo among them), this young man has already made his mark on the role:  his soaring cries in Act IV, thrilling though they may be, transcend mere vocal beauty, conveying a desperate, almost animalistic anguish.  To be sure, Cura takes some time to warm up, both musically and dramatically, but the overall performance makes one anticipate all the more keenly his forthcoming Erato recital of verismo arias….”  American Record Guide

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Guleghina and Cura are visually excellent and manage to convey the emotional aspects of the text dramatically. Cura is both visually and vocally first rate. I am unaware of any competing DVD version of this opera, and—principally because of the excellent visual quality and because the principal singers are fine—I find it is worth investigation by Puccini admirers. The sound and picture are both excellent.”  Fanfare Magazine

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Taped on the stage of La Scala in June 1998, this Manon Lescaut represents old-fashioned theatre at its best. The pairing of Maria Guleghina (Manon Lescaut) and José Cura (Des Grieux) is felicitous, catching both in excellent vocal estate. There is good chemistry between them, and sparks fly in Acts 3 and 4. Cura can be musically wayward, but under the iron bâtons of Muti, he behaves himself.  Highly recommended.”  La Scena Muscale

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Poised to inherit the mantle and the juicy operatic roles of the Three Tenors, José Cura has been subject to intense scrutiny. Does he have the vocal goods to match the pretty face and dashing figure? This live recording of Puccini's Manon Lescaut, recorded at La Scala in 1998, offers promising evidence. As the young student Des Grieux, Cura's presence is charismatic from the start, blossoming into a passionate rendition of the famous Act I tenor aria, Donna non vidi mai. It's been noted that Cura's voice leans toward a darker, almost baritonal range, but while his top notes don't ring out á la Pavarotti, they're resonant enough to convince you that his future as an audience-pleasing heartthrob is both secure and deserved.....”  Barnes and Nobles

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “This is a high-powered production from La Scala with Riccardo Muti conducting a star-studded cast (Maria Guleghina in the title role, supported by José Cura). It is predictably excellent. Puccini's libretto is not as logically structured as Massenet's, but it is intensely impassioned, and Muti and his cast find this intensity very much to their taste.”  Classical Music Reviews

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “This particular representation of the opera has just about everything going for it. The production, filmed at La Scala in 1998, is a lavish period staging with costumes as beautiful as museum pieces, and sets which bring the story vividly to life. But even more important are the leads. One could hardly imagine a more handsome Des Grieux than José Cura or a more beautiful Manon that Maria Guleghina. They are picture-book leads. Neither gives a cookie-cutter performance, and these are not cookie-cutter voices. Cura’s tenor sounds more like a baritone with (great) high notes, and his vocal mannerisms—most which don’t bother me—are very much in evidence. The DVD’s presentation is stylish and useful. I have no doubt that when Puccini sat down at his desk to write Manon Lescaut and pictured the scenes of the opera, he must have imagined them very much like this.”  Opera Today

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “This is a flat-out, heavy-breathing production, directed by Italian film- and-stage diva Liliana Cavani. With Maria Guleghina (Manon) and José Cura (des Grieux), she has two fine actors, pretty as movie stars, who pour on the sex. And, yes, they can sing. I had to keep fanning myself. ....”  Oakland Tribune

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Maria Guleghina impresses strongly. To my mind she is Puccini’s ideal ‘tart with a heart for gold.’ José Cura, as Des Grieux, is in fine voice, colourful and ardent – I just wish he could have been that bit more furious with Manon in his Act II entrance. But his singing with Guleghina (their voices blending so well) ravishes the ear especially in their tempestuous Act II duets and in the intensity of their Act IV duet as Manon dies in the arms of a distraught Des Grieux. Throughout Muti supplies a beautiful, romantic, detailed orchestral backdrop.”  Avax

Manon Lescaut DVD, Milan, 1998:  “This Manon Lescaut is a highly polished and dramatic interpretation of the lyrical tragedy performed at La Scala 1998. It features virtuoso performances by José Cura (in powerful and dramatically convincing form), Maria Guleghina (who produces some astoundingly sweet soft singing) and Lucio Gallo, and is conducted by Riccardo Muti, who brings out some fine contrasts and balances of tempos, drama and pace.”  Sky

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “I really enjoyed the performances.  True, Maria Guleghina’s massive voice is rather short on vulnerability, and during Act 1 it sounds as if the part is being sung by a trainee Isolde, but she rises to the drama of the great duet in Act 2, and I found her very moving in the death scene.  Similarly, Cura will get few marks for subtlety, but he scores high on romantic ardour.  His dark tenor is quite well suited to the part of Des Grieux, particularly during his reproaches in Act 2, and his performance in the Act 3 roll call scene is storming.  Don’t dismiss it out of hand as there is plenty on the DVD to enjoy and a great deal that is very valuable indeed.”  MusicWeb International

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “José Cura is devastating as Des Grieux. I am less enthusiastic about Maria Guleghina’s Manon. Once again, a traditional production staged by Liliana Cavani (also responsible for the filming) allows us to appreciate the work in its own right…”  Fanfair Magazine

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “This DVD, recorded in 1998 at La Scala in Milan, benefits from a modern technique and a particularly credible couple of lovers.  José Cura relies on his "sex appeal" in portraying a young male experiencing first love but he is missing a bit of the fragility necessary to make the character credible. Overall the role is well sung, although the tenor has a little trouble varying the colors of a baritone voice that lacks brilliance in the high notes, launched with effort. The performance is moderately melodramatic, engagement compensating for refinement.  Overall, a DVD worthy of any good video library.”  Forum Opera

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “Friends of museum performance practice and historical costume variety will be delighted with the re-release of this DVD from 1998. Director Diana [sic] Cavani works in a realistic décor exactly in the ambience given by the composer: the "second half of the 18th century." The singing is excellent and the production showcases one of today's great superstars, José Cura, at the beginning of his career. At the time all of Milan was at his feet. In this respect it is also a historical document. Cura has never sung a part better. [He] sings his donna non vidi mai in a refreshingly beautiful way. With Tu amore ... amore we are sure we have bought the right DVD. There it is, the wonderful piano and the freshness of this young and natural sounding pair of singers, Guleghina & Cura. Cura is not the big screamer but proves to be a pleasant singer who knows how to assess his abilities well and intelligently—if only he would not look up so often... With [No! Pazzo son!] the Puccini fan's heart is opened.  This disk is worth the price for the fourth act alone.  It is sung divinely in unison, and on the empty, stony stage where no collection of museum junk disturbing the scene. We die with the protagonists in devilishly beautiful Pucchini waves. This is how opera has to be recorded on DVD!”  Musenblätter

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “In his first [enduring] opera, which immediately became his greatest success [to date] and helped to establish his fame, Puccini created a pair of lovers who can be seen as his version of “Romeo and Juliet,” “Bonnie and Clyde” or “Tristan and Isolde.” His subject here is an equally extraordinary love that violates social conventions and norms and only finds its fulfillment in death. Star tenor José Cura shines as Des Grieux and the warm and expressive soprano Maria Guleghina gives Manon her very own character. Riccardo Muti’s interpretation captivates with its well-balanced alternation between social realism and private love psychology.”  Weltbild

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “This Manon Lescaut is a model in more ways than one.  First by the elegant conducting of Riccardo Muti, who brings nobility to the Puccini orchestra, and then by the cast itself, with Maria Guleghina as sensual as one could wish, José Cura with exemplary style and bronze tenor, and a troupe in tune with the conductor’s conception. It is unlikely that any Manon Lescaut will be found anytime soon that can compete with this immaculate film. Indispensable for any video library.”  ConcertClassic

Manon Lescaut DVD:  “From La Scala comes this realistic 1998 staging by Liliana Cavani.  José Cura’s baritonal qualities make him an acquired taste and not entirely successful casting in a role that, for me anyway, requires a more lyric voice; but he is a consummate actor who gives everything on stage.”   Opera Now

Note:  This is a machine-based translation.  We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

Manon Lescaut at La Scala

La Repubblica

Michelangelo Zurletti

7 June 1998

[Excerpt]

With the curtain closed on one of the most important productions of the season, we wonder why Riccardo Muti waited thirty years to confront Puccini, why it took him so long to propose an opera like Manon Lescaut which he evidently thoroughly owns. Let's just say he was afraid. Not of Puccini but of Puccinism. Not of the sophisticated composer who works well (already in this debut work) with conductive motifs, with an unconventional harmonic taste and very fine orchestration but of Puccini the man, much more fragile and exposed to the pitfalls of bad taste,  afraid of the close coexistence of the two in one body.

Liliana Cavani makes, as usual, a show of great orderliness. Dante Ferretti's stage setting is traditional and meticulous. We pass from a real post station, with carriages and tables in the open (but why so many students and girls are at a post station, which seems more like a youth hostel?) to a golden cage full of stucco and feathers and mirrors; then we see the side of a huge ship (the ship doesn’t maneuver but it does not matter: the sight is remarkable) and finally a desert of stones multiplied by side mirrors.

Sober and appropriate movements of choristers and extras and the beautifully realized third act with the appeal of the very lost (and not yet resigned) women, the boldness of their walk, the comments of the crowd: never have we seen such natural tension in such an ambiguous atmosphere. And beautiful, solved with just acting, is the last act, with that absolute desperation and the representation of a love finally devoid of social flattery, declared and lived in a pure state.

The singing company is splendid. Maria Guleghina follows Muti's lead, adapting with great naturalness: from the somewhat jaunty superficiality in the first and second acts she evolves in maturity in the third act and in the last she is appropriately desperate.  She reaches a very rare intensity in the finale.  So, too, does José Cura who modulates his beautiful voice with great sensitivity of phrasing, like a true musician.

Note:  This is a machine-based translation.  We offer it only a a general guide but it should not be considered definitive.

Manon Lescaut at La Scala

La Stampa

Giorgio Pestelli

8 June 1998

[Excerpt]

Riccardo Muti and Liliana Cavani [were] welcomed with applause and enthusiastic cheers, but not by everyone; when the conductor appeared during the final triumph, a few whistles could be heard, which can only be explained as a sign of nostalgia for the bubbling feelings and old lyrical athleticism [that seemed missing].  Rather one felt the lack of a certain sensual streak, though in its place Muti and Cavani reveal other feelings to balance the outcome.

In the title role the performance by Maria Guleghina, a singer and artist who goes from naive, mischievous, nostalgic tones (her first big applause was after In quelle trine morbide) to those vibrant and dramatic, was excellent’  Less consistent but always with great style was the interpretation of José Cura in the part of the unfortunate lover; he phrases like a very fine musician but his voice sometimes tightens and some high notes are a bit forced. As an actor, he alternates between moments of great presence, favored by the power of his physique, with others of strange apathy as in the second act, when he enters Manon's salon after she has betrayed him as if headed somewhere else with something else on his mind. Lucio Gallo is well cast as Lescaut, as are Luigi Roni and Marco Berti; the choir, instructed by Roberto Gabbiani is magnificent.