Massenet's 'Manon' Brings the Belle Époque to The Met: Live in HD

Related Media

Anna Netrebko sings the title role in “Manon,” playing a young woman who must choose between true love and a luxurious lifestyle.

• “Manon” screens live at noon on April 7, with an encore on April 15 at Potsdam’s Roxy Theater.
• Netrebko, in the title role, begs for forgiveness from tenor Piotr Beczala, playing le Chevalier des Grieux, who has entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice.

POTSDAM, NY (03/29/2012)(readMedia)-- The Metropolitan Opera will bring its revival of Jules Massenet's "Manon" to movie screens across the world on April 7, with one of the most popular and enduring operas to grace the world's stages.

The next installment of The Met: Live in HD, airing live on April 7 with an encore on April 15, embodies the quintessential example of the charm and vitality of the music and culture of the Parisian Belle Époque.

Laurent Pelly's new production of Massenet's opera stars Anna Netrebko in the title role opposite Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot. Fabio Luisi conducts a production that comes from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

French producer Pelly describes his star character: "Manon is the story of a free young girl. [She is] a young woman in love: sometimes both in love with and attracted by all that glitters. She is a young woman, both naïve and manipulative, who acts purely in her own interest and for her own pleasure."

Soprano Netrebko presents her signature portrayal of Massenet's ill-fated Manon Lescaut in the next installment of The Met: Live in HD on Saturday, April 7. This performance follows her star turn as the title character in the Met's season-opening production of "Anna Bolena" last fall.

"Anna Netrebko is extraordinary in the part," says Pelly. "Anna is a very girlish woman, and at the same time an incredible seductress. She has a huge power of seduction over the audience. She has sex appeal, a bewitching voice and she is a wonderful actress."

In the Telegraph, reviewer Rupert Christiansen said, "I've always held that Massenet's 'Manon' is an outright masterpiece, but never until now seen a performance that justified my belief. Laurent Pelly's production has the great virtue of taking the characters' emotional turmoil seriously, and telling the story with crystalline clarity."

Massenet's "Manon" is set in 19th century France, and is based on the 18th century novel by the Abbé Prévost. In the title role, Netrebko plays Manon, a naive young woman who is drawn into a world of men, torn between love and luxury, and unable to resist the wrong things, ultimately paying the price.

"Manon" will screen live at noon on Saturday, April 7 at Potsdam's Roxy Theater. There will be an encore transmission at noon on Sunday, April 15.

The opera will be performed in French, with English subtitles. The approximate running time is four hours, with intermission breaks.

In the North Country, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and J.S. Cinemas sponsor the 2011-12 season of The Met: Live in HD. Music-lovers and novices alike can watch the staging live from the Metropolitan stage in New York City, where high-definition cameras capture the action and the dramatic music is presented in surround sound, with English subtitles.

The Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series has won both Peabody and Emmy Awards, and sold more than 2.6 million tickets last season, expanding to 1,600 theaters in 54 countries.

Ticket prices for the series are the lowest available in the nation: $18 for an adult, $15 for senior citizens, $12 for students and $9 for youth age 18 and under.

Tickets are available by calling the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277, or visiting the Roxy Theater or Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam or the CPS Box Office in the lobby of Sara M. Snell Music Theater. You can also reserve tickets online by visiting www.cpspotsdam.org.

For more information on the 2011-12 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx.

To learn more about The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011-12.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-