Politics Plus

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Manon Lescaut” by Daniel Auber – something which I did not even know existed. I knew about “Manon” by Jules Massenet, and “Manon Lescaut” by Giacomo Puccini – which are going to be the next two operas in the radio series. All are from the same opera house in Turin, Italy, which decided to present all three in one season for comparison. You may remember I said about “The Queen of Spades” that the opera, the operetta, and the te original novella are three very different stories. Well, that’s pretty much true of Manon as well, except it’s four different stories, all three operas being adapted from the same novel. The one plot point they all have in common is that they all end with Manon being deported to Louisiana and dying there from poverty. If this strikes you as somewhat too politically appropriate, the WFMY group may have had that in mind, but the Teatre Regio probably didnt, and all three operas were recorded last October – and therefore likely scheduled some time in 2022, or even earlier. The Auber version, with a libretto by Eugene Scribe cleaned up the heroine’s morals somewhat. The other two didn’t but differ in other ways. (If you have any energy to spare, you might want to look up Eugene Scribe some time. The list of playwrights he influenced all over the western world is striking. You may never have heard of him, but you have seen plays or movies by writers he influenced.) Daniel Auber’s father and grandfather both had royal appointments, but when he was about 10, the French Revolution started and he had to find something else to make a living. What had been his hobby became his profession. So, there’s politics all over this opera. It does have spoken dialogue – the plot was not lofty enough for the Paris Opera, so it premiered at the Opera Comique, and was the first opera there with a tragic ending, preceding Bizet’s “Carmen” and probably paving the way for it – although Bizet’s librettist did not clean up the heroine’s morals, so it was still a scandal when it came along. Anyway, next week Massenet, and the following week Puccini, same story only different. The one by Auber for this week has delightful music including “bel canto.” The other two are newer, but both are also very listenable (neither of them cleaned up Manon’s morals, because by that time, Carmen had come along.) Off to see Virgil now – will check in upon return as always.

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Rocky Mountain Mike is back for a short one