"The (Hi)story of the Chévalier des Grieux and of Manon"

MASSENET: Manon: Prelude to Act II

New Phliharmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel, cond. ABC-EMI-DG, recorded July 1970

by Ken

This isn't an excerpt you're apt to hear often outside the context of the opera (it's not meant to stand alone, of course), but I've plunked it in here, not just because it's such a lovely two minutes' worth of music, but because it directly follows the chunk of duet we heard between Manon and the Chévalier des Grieux in Friday night's preview, when they declared so joyfully that they would live in Paris, tous les deux, tous les deux. Because as Act II begins, they are indeed living in Paris, tous les deux, and for this while at least, they're blissfully happy.

Without worrying about dramatic context for a moment, let's jump to later in the act, near the end, in fact, and hear des Grieux share with Manon a dream he's had -- one of the most celebrated and beautiful specimens of the lyric-tenor repertory, often known simply as "The Dream." (Not to worry, in the click-through we're going to hear it in proper dramatic context.)

Manon: Act II, Recitative and aria, des Grieux, "Instant charmant, où la crainte fait trêve" ("Enchanting moment, where fear is dispelled") . . . "En fermant les yeux ("On closing my eyes")

DES GRIEUX: Enchanting moment, where fear is dispelled,
where we are just the two of us.
Listen, Manon, while walking
I just had a dream.

On closing my eyes, I see
in the distance a humble retreat,
a little house,
all white, in the depths of the woods.
In its tranquil shadows
clear and joyous streams,
in which leaves are reflected,
sing with the birds.
It's Paradise. Oh, no!
Everything there is sad and morose,
for there's one thing lacking there.
Still needed there is Manon!
Our life will be there,
if you wish it, o Manon!

Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; orchestra, Donald Voorhees, cond. NBC Radio concert, Jan. 8, 1951

Léopold Simoneau, tenor; Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paul Strauss, cond. DG, recorded 1953

[in Italian] Beniamino Gigli, tenor; orchestra, John Barbirolli, cond. Live performance, London, June 26, 1931

In good time the story of Manon and des Grieux (as told originally by the ex-Benedictine Abbé Prévost in his 1731 novel L'Histoire du Chévalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, bearing in mind that the French histoire conveniently means both "story" and "history") will turn not just wrong but horribly, disastrously wrong. For this week, though, I want to focus on what's right about the relationship, from the standpoints of both participants, as I'll explain in a moment.


BACK IN ACT I, ENTER MANON


Anna Netrebko as Manon arrives in Amiens "all dazed" and "all numb," at the Met earlier this year.

I'm only a poor girl.
I'm not bad,
but often they accuse me in my family
of liking pleasure too much.
They're putting me in the convent right away.
And there it is, the story of Manon!

-- Manon, to des Grieux, in Act I

Manon: Act I, Manon, "Je suis encor tout étourdie" ("I am still all dazed")

MANON: I am still all dazed,
I am still all numb!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
excuse me for a moment of emotion.
I am still all dazed.
Pardon my chattering,
I'm on my first journey!
The coach had hardly set off
when I was admiring wide-eyed
the hamlets, the great forests, the plains,
the travelers young and old!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
It's my first journey!
I watched, curious, the fleeing
of the trees waving in the wind!
And I forgot, all joyful,
that I was setting out for the convent!
In the face of so many new things,
don't laugh if I tell you
that I thought I had wings
and was flying to Paradise!
Yes, my cousin!
Then I had a moment of sadness . . .
I wept . . . I don't know why . . .
The next instant, I confess,
I was laughing, ah! ah! ah! ah! I was laughing,
but without knowing why!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
Ah, my cousin, pardon . . .
I am still all dazed,
I am still all numb!
Pardon my chattering,
I'm on my first journey!

[in Italian] Mirella Freni (s), Manon; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Peter Maag, cond. Live performance, June 3, 1969

Renée Fleming (s), Manon; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. Decca, recorded July 1999

In Friday night's preview, when we heard the "Nous vivrons à Paris" duet-fragment from Act I of Manon that our hero and heroine, now heading off for a life together in Paris, had "only just met." We need to back up now and fill in a bit.

Act I is set in the courtyard of an inn in the city of Amiens, north of Paris, which happens also to be the coach stop, which accounts for the presence of two of the three presences fate has brought together this day:

* a pair of Parisian noblemen come a-carousing at the inn

* 16-year-old Manon Lescaut, who is deposited here from a coach from her hometown, where she is to be met by a cousin she's never met, who is charged with packing her off to a convent

* the young Chévalier des Grieux, who is waiting for a coach to take him to, or at least toward, his ancestral home and the company of his father, the Count des Grieux

The chance meeting of Manon and des Grieux is one of the great instances of what we call rather prosaically "love at first sight," which the French call so much more descriptively coup de foudre, or lightning bolt -- except that it's even more descriptive, since French lightning comes not in a bolt but in a blow. It's such an epic moment that it really requires music, which, thankfully, both Massenet and Puccini supplied.

What I've been trying to suggest, in the excerpts we heard Friday night (the opera's brief Prelude as well as the "Nous vivrons à Paris" duet fragment) and are hearing today, is Massenet's ability to make us care about -- no, love, or perhaps even treasure, his protagonists. I'm not sure we really get that from the performances of just the aria I've plunked atop this page. I'm afraid I've gone lazy and drawn the line re. source material: only what I've got on CD.

I'm especially disappointed by Renée Fleming's performance, and I'd like to think that in her performances of the role she gets a little closer than she did in this recital recording: to the reality of Manon: a 16-year-old girl from the sticks who, though she has seen and experienced very little so far, has blossomed early and has only begun to discover the doors that can open to her thanks to the power over men which comes with her physical beauty. She is also, as she tells des Grieux her family is prone to say of her, a girl who likes pleasure too much.

In the booklet note for the DG reissue of the 1970 Sills-Gedda-Rudel Manon recording, Roger Pines writes of the Prévost novel:

Des Grieux himself narrates the sad tale of his relationship with a selfish young woman who does comparatively little to earn the reader's affection. That one responds quite differently to the operatic Manon is one of Massenet's greatest achievements.

I've never read Prévost, so I'll take Pines on faith there, but I certainly second his tribute to our composer.

We're going to return to Manon's entrance song, and hear it now in fuller context, and also with singers who I think bring us a lot closer to Manon -- especially with three sopranos who were particularly known for their ability to establish a bond of intimacy with an audience: Beverly Sills, Victoria de los Angeles, and even more especially the beloved Brazilian soprano Bidú Sayão. (Note that that opening line for the chorus is sometimes there [the ABC-EMI-DG and EMI recordings] and sometimes not [the two Met performances]. It's not in my Schirmer vocal score.)

Manon: Act I, Crowd, "Voyez cette jeune fille" ("Look at this young girl"), Lescaut, "Eh! J'imagine que cette belle enfant" ("Hey, I imagine that this beautiful child") . . . Manon, "Je suis encor tout étourdie" ("I am still all dazed")

[MANON has just emerged from the crowd and considers the hurly-burly with astonishment.]
THE CROWD: Look at this young girl.
LESCAUT [looking at her]: Hey, I imagine that
this beautiful child is Manon, my cousin!
I am Lescaut.
MANON: You, my cousin?
Give me a kiss!
LESCAUT: But quite gladly, on my faith!
Morbleu! She's a beautiful girl
who does credit to the family.
MANON: Ah, my cousin, excuse me.
LESCAUT [turning away]: She's charming!
MANON: I am still all dazed,
I am still all numb!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
excuse me for a moment of emotion.
I am still all dazed.
Pardon my chattering,
I'm on my first journey!
The coach had hardly set off
when I was admiring wide-eyed
the hamlets, the great forests, the plains,
the travelers young and old!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
It's my first journey!
I watched, curious, the fleeing
of the trees waving in the wind!
And I forgot, all joyful,
that I was setting out for the convent!
In the face of so many new things,
don't laugh if I tell you
that I thought I had wings
and was flying to Paradise!
Yes, my cousin!
Then I had a moment of sadness . . .
I wept . . . I don't know why . . .
The next instant, I confess,
I was laughing, ah! ah! ah! ah! I was laughing,
but without knowing why!
Ah, my cousin, excuse me!
Ah, my cousin, pardon . . .
I am still all dazed,
I am still all numb!
Pardon my chattering,
I'm on my first journey!

Gérard Souzay (b), Lescaut; Beverly Sills (s), Manon; Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Phliharmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel, cond. ABC-EMI-DG, recorded July 1970

Earle Patriarco (b), Lescaut; Angela Gheorghiu (s), Manon; Symphony Orchestra of the Monnaie (Brussels), Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded Apr.-May 1999

Fernando Corena (bs), Lescaut; Victoria de los Angeles (s), Manon; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. Live performance, Dec. 18, 1954

John Brownlee (b), Lescaut; Bidú Sayão (s), Manon; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham, cond. Live performance, Jan. 16, 1943

NOW LET'S HEAR DES GRIEUX'S
"DREAM" IN FULLER CONTEXT

I note that translators casually substitute "daydream" for "dream" in des Grieux's narration of his dream, and since this particular dream came to him while he was walking, it does seem to have been a daydream. But does he really mean to tell us that he closed his eyes and had a dream while he was walking?

Manon: Act II, Scene, Manon, "C'est lui" ("it's him") . . . des Grieux, "Enfin, Manon, nous voilà seuls ensemble" ("Finally, Manon, here we are alone together") . . . "Instant charmant, où la crainte fait trêve" ("Enchanting moment, where fear is disspelled") . . . "En fermant les yeux" ("On closing my eyes")

DES GRIEUX has gone out to mail a letter he's written to his father about MANON. A great deal has happened in his absence, unbeknownst to him as he returns to their apartment and finds his beloved in tears.

MANON: It's him! Let my paleness not betray me!
DES GRIEUX: Finally, Manon, here we are alone together!
But what? Tears?
MANON: No.
DES GRIEUX: In fact, your hand is trembling.
MANON: Here is our meal.
DES GRIEUX: It's true . . . my head is mad . . .
but happiness is fleeting,
and heaven has made it so flimsy
that one always fears that it will fly away.
To the table!
MANON: To the table!
DES GRIEUX: Enchanting moment, where fear is dispelled,
where we are just the two of us.
Listen, Manon, while walking
I just had a dream.
MANON [aside]: Alas! Who doesn't have dreams?
DES GRIEUX: On closing my eyes, I see
in the distance a humble retreat,
a little house,
all white, in the depths of the woods.
In its tranquil shadows
clear and joyous streams,
in which leaves are reflected,
sing with the birds.
It's Paradise. Oh, no!
Everything there is sad and morose,
for there's one thing lacking there.
Still needed there is Manon!
MANON: It's a dream, a madness.
DES GRIEUX: Our life will be there,
if you wish it, o Manon!

Nicolai Gedda (t), Chévalier des Grieux; Beverly Sills (s), Manon; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel, cond. ABC-EMI-DG, recorded July 1970

Roberto Alagna (t), Chévalier des Grieux; Angela Gheorghiu (s), Manon; Symphony Orchestra of the Monnaie (Brussels), Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded Apr.-May 1999

Giuseppe di Stefano (t), Chévalier des Grieux; Licia Albanese (s), Manon; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Dec. 15, 1951

Rolando Villazón (t), Chévalier des Grieux; Natalie Dessay (s), Manon; Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France, Evelino Pidó, cond. Virgin Classics, recorded March 2004


NO, WE HAVEN'T FINISHED WITH MANON

I think we can already see, from the state of mind Manon displays in her entrance song and the very different one des Grieux displays in his dream narrative, that there's a difference in their respective hopes and dreams, which doesn't bode well for the long-term success of their relationship. And that's without reckoning on outside forces, like the pressures of the chévalier's social class. But none of that explains why the result is so disastrous. We'll be looking into this more.

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