Image via Wikipedia
This will have to be a short post because it is now 11.20pm and we have just returned from The Met. Yes, the New York Metropolitan Opera House where we saw a performance of Manon with Anna Netrebko in the title role. Again I have to admit that I didn’t fly over to New York for the performance but saw it as part of the Metropolitan Opera Series – The MetLive in HD – at our local bijoux cinema.
As I said in an earlier post it was almost as good as being there. And we did get to see interviews with the stars and the stage being set during the intervals; so maybe it was even better than being there.
Photo - Ian Wallace
Supper was served during the first interval. My choice this time was a smoked fish risotto followed by coffee. Because there is such a short interval supper is ordered before the performance and is served as one comes out. Great service and good food.
So to the opera – do you know the story of Jules Massenet‘s Manon? It’s a simple tale of a country girl who has been sent to Paris to join a convent because her family think her too exuberant. Her cousin is charged with meeting her and getting her to the convent. However, while he is away with his friends, Manon meets Chevalier des Grieux and their attraction is immediate.
So they flee together and set up residence in a one room apartment. But Manon is attracted to the good life and gives up her ‘true love’ to follow her dreams of riches and fun.
She becomes the toast of Paris and is kept by several wealthy men. However, she learns that her ‘true love’ has never recovered from her betrayal and is going to take holy vows. She tracks him down and entices him away from the religious life (after much fighting, soul searching and angst on his part) and they live the kind of life that Manon loves.
Click here for the synopsis that I just found on the web.
It was a very long night. The performance started at 6.30pm, two short breaks of 20 minutes each and it finished at 11.05pm. Good job I live 4 minutes away by car; luckily my friend brought her car.
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