Metropolitan Opera Archives

Since 'Manon' had been out of the repertoire only one season, its re-entry presented another instance of what was more properly a resumption than a revival?The musical leadership was of first interest, along with the restoration of the Cours la Reine scene, which had figured in the Farrar revival of '19-'20, but which disappeared when the opera was brought back again in the middle thirties. Possibly as a partial compensation for this lengthening of the performance, Sir Thomas, or someone of higher authority, decided to eliminate the charming breakfast scene at the [beginning] of the opera, beginning instead (as in many Italian performances) with the chorus and the entrance of Lescaut. This was unfortunate, as the casual pace of the entire first act and much of the second is set by this scene. It is typically and essentially French in spirit, 'Manon' requires above all else and the careful tending of that characteristic quality. This performance stood in particular need of it. Beginning chorally, as it did, like any routine Italian work, it never really got as far as the Paris of which Manon and des Grieux sang so fervidly in their duet of elopement at the inn in Amiens. Sir Thomas got results from both orchestra and singers. But they were rather heavily underscored, so far as the pit was concerned, and the performance had more of animation than of atmosphere.

Miss Sayao and Mr. Kullman both gave us much of their best singing. In the difficult bravura air of the Cours la Reine episode ('La marche sur tour le chemins') the Brazilian soprano was enabled to demonstrate a neat control of vocal flourishes. She had her customary success with the 'Obeissons' gavotte (retained in the gambling scene, rather than shifted back to the Cours la Reine); and met with sufficient intensity, if a tone of limited size, the passionate plea to des Grieux in the Saint Sulpice encounter. Her first-act Manon was too much the ingenue and it was stagily coquettish rather than simple. The farewell to the little table, too, was over-stressed in the quest of the tragic, when the pathetic was all that was to be desired. But her characterization gained in directness as the performance progressed and many of its later details were of dramatic and pictorial appeal.

Mr. Kullman has given us no better singing than in his delineation of des Grieux. The reserve which the part required of him was of benefit to his vocal line, which he and others too often disrupt by an over - emotional attack. 'La Rêve' was smoothly and expressively turned; 'Ah! Fuyez!' more so than might have been expected, in view of its temptations to the lachrymose. His impersonation was a skilled and likeably youthful one.

Of the others, Mr. Brownlee and Mr. Cordon both found their parts fattened by the Cours la Reine restoration. The baritone was more successful, however, with the first-act 'Ne bronchez-pas' than with the imitation eighteenth century measures of the 'Rosalinde' air that thus came into his keeping. The bass treated his two scenes with his usual competence and intelligence. The Guillot of Mr. De Paolis was adroit, if in the first act too farcically drawn. As a debut performance, the de Bretigny of Mr. Cassell was assured and agreeable. The lesser figures met the requirements.

The Cours la Reine scene was mostly a matter of choral bustlings about. These were of a pleasant, routine nature, but not particularly picturesque. There was no ballet. The minuet, attractively played, served gracefully as the entr'acte. The scene undoubtedly contributes something to the unfoldment of the plot, but there is far more reason to leave it out-if something is to be sacrified-than any other part of the score. Musically it is full of welcome melody, but, save for the usually transferred gavotte song, none of this is indispensable, as past performances without the scene have served to make clear.

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