Massenet - Manon / Cotrubas · Kraus · Quilico · van Dam · Capitole de Toulouse · Plasson [Import]

Jules Massenet (Artist), Michel Plasson (Artist), Ileana Cotrubas (Artist), Alfredo Kraus (Artist), Choeurs et Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse (Artist), José van Dam (Artist), Gino Quilico (Artist), Charles Burles (Artist), Jacques Loreau (Artist), Martine Mahé (Artist), Jean-Marie Frémeau (Artist), Colette Alliot-Lugaz (Artist), Jacques Loreau Ghyslaine Rahanel (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 11, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Import
• Label: Angel Records
• ASIN: B000005GIQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,259 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Prld - Orch Du Capitole De Toulouse/Miachel Plasson

2. Act I: Hola! He! Monsieur L'Hotelier! - Ghyslaine Raphanel/Colette Alliot-Lugaz/Martine Mahe/Charles Brules/Jean-Marie Fremeau...

3. Act I: Allez A L'auberge Voisine - Choeur Du Capitole De Toulouse/Guy Lhomme/Gino Quilico/Roger Trentin/Jean Melac

4. Act I: Je Suis Encore Tout Etourdie - Ileana Cotrubas

5. Act I: Revenez, Guillot, Revenez! - Ghyslaine Raphanel/Colette Alliot-Lugaz/Martine Mahe

6. Act I: Regardez-Moi Bien Dans Les Yeux - Gino Quilico

7. Act I: Voyons, Manon, Plus De Chimeres - Ileana Cotrubas

8. Act I: Et Je Sais Votre Nom - Alfredo Kraus/Ileana Cotrubas

9. Act I: Plus Un Sou! Le Tour Est Plaisant! - Gino Quilico/Charles Brules/Jean-Marie Fremeau/Jacques Loreau/Ghyslaine Raphanel...

10. Act II: Prld - Orch Du Capitole De Toulouse/Michel Plasson

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Act III, Scene 1: Gavotte: Obeissons Quand Leur Voix Appelle - Ileana Cotrubas/Choeur Du Capitole De Toulouse/Guy Lhomme

2. Act III, Scene 1: Pardon! Mais J'etais La - Ileana Cotrubas/Jose Van Dam

3. Act III, Scene 1: Preambule: L'Opera, Voici L'Opera! - Jean-Marie Fremeau/Choeur Du Capitole De Toulouse/Guy Lhomme/Charles Brules

4. Act III, Scene 1: Ballet - Orch Du Capitole De Toulouse/Michel Plasson

5. Act III, Scene 1: Non, Sa Vie A La Mienne... - Ileana Cotrubas/Gino Quilico/Charles Brules/Choeur Du Capitole De Toulouse/Guy Lhomme

6. Act III, Scene 2: Quelle Eloquence! - Choeur Du Capitole De Toulouse/Guy Lhomme

7. Act III, Scene 2: Epouse Quelque Bonne Fille - Jose Van Dam

8. Act III, Scene 2: Je Suis Seul... Ah! Fuyez, Douce Image - Alfredo Kraus

9. Act III, Scene 2: Pardonnez-Moi, Dieu De Toute Puissance - Ileana Cotrubas

10. Act III, Scene 2: Oui, Je Fus Cruelle Et Coupable! - Ileana Cotrubas/Alfredo Kraus

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reference Manon, December 24, 2006

By 

The Cultural Observer - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Massenet - Manon / Cotrubas · Kraus · Quilico · van Dam · Capitole de Toulouse · Plasson (Audio CD)

This Manon has long been overshadowed by great recordings with the likes of Beverly Sills, Victoria de Los Angeles, and Angela Gheorghiu as the opera's title role. Ileana Cotrubas was a Romanian soprano famous for singing lighter roles, most notably a Violetta with Carlos Kleiber on Deutsche Grammophone. I own that recording, and I find that out of the several Violettas who have turned the opera into fodder for the soprano voice, Cotrubas gives it a dimension and perspective that only a few singers like Maria Callas did in their career. She probes into the character like no other and dazzles us with coloratura that the soprano could call her own. She also had an innocent quality about her voice which made her less lusty but more feminine than Maria. These are the reasons why I bought this recording of Manon.

I have heard several Manon's, the latest being Renee Fleming's disaster on Sony. Her extremely mannered character and jazzy swoops, scoops, and slides are totally uncalled for in a repertoire where style is everything. None of that, gladly, can be found in this performance. With a voice slightly darker than Sills and a quality as smooth and beautiful as de los Angeles and a command of the French language than can put many French Manons to shame, Cotrubas is my reference Manon. She is coquettish, flirtatious, frivolous, and correctly sad and full of abandon in the latter acts. She shows Manon's development as a character perfectly as no other singer ever did in their recordings. She should be a model for all singers who wish to interpret this role.

Cotrubas is partnerred by Alfredo Kraus' De Grieux, who is perhaps the best exponent of a role taken by beefier tenors lacking in style and lighter tenors who ought to sing more Taminos before taking on this very passionate, poetic, and ardent role. De Grieux lies within Kraus' comfortable range, and I find that he brings out more colors and emotions with his singing of this role than other tenors. He also sings all of De Grieux's notes with a charm and elegance rare among the breed of lighter tenors that dominate today's market. The Comte de Grieux is taken by Jose Van Dam, one of the baritones of the last few decades who brought a special touch to everything he sang without the overly decadent mannerisms associated with Fischer Dieskau. I love this singer's work, and he perhaps makes this role more special than any other person who sang the role.

Michel Plasson, a French conductor who gave us some of the best recordings of his native country's operas, brings a quasi-impressionistic-Romantic feel to this opera, which perfectly suits Massenet's orchestration. This is the definitive recording of Manon, so grab it while EMI has it in circulation still.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stylish Manon, January 13, 2006

By 

Scott Jelsey "tscott2" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massenet - Manon / Cotrubas · Kraus · Quilico · van Dam · Capitole de Toulouse · Plasson (Audio CD)

Just received this set a few days ago - highly recommended. I love this opera - this is my third set and it would be hard to decide which is my favorite. I also have the Sills/Gedda and Gheorghiu/Alagna. Kraus just has such a wonderful style of singing Frnech opera - he makes the opera come alive. Cotrubas sounds very seductrive, if not quite as much as Sills. The sound (early digital) is clean and well balanced and Plasson conducts with a real love of the score. Recommended.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On m'appelle Manon ... I'm called Manon ... Manon Lescaut mi chiamo, August 24, 2006

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Massenet - Manon / Cotrubas · Kraus · Quilico · van Dam · Capitole de Toulouse · Plasson (Audio CD)

SOURCE:
Studio recording made at Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, France, July 1-15, 1982.

SOUND:
Perfectly acceptable 1980s DDD stereo. Purely as a matter of personal taste, I prefer a less resonant recording venue than the 3,000-seat Halle aux Grains. Portions of the opera sound as though they were recorded at the far end of a Gothic cathedral.

SINGING CAST:
Manon Lescaut - Ileana Cotrubas (soprano)
Le Chevalier des Grieux - Alfredo Kraus (tenor)
Lescaut, in this version, Manon's cousin - Gino Quilico (baritone)
Le Comte des Grieux - Jose Van Dam (bass)
Guillot de Morfontaine - Charles Burles (tenor)
De Bretigny - Jean-Marie Fremeau (baritone)
Poussette - Ghyslaine Raphanel (soprano)
Javotte - Colette Alliot-Lugaz (soprano)
Rosette - Martine Mahe (mezzo-soprano)
L'Hotelier - Jacques Loreau (baritone)
Two Guards - Roger Trentin and Jean Melac.

SPEAKING CAST:
Serving girl - Balvina de Courcelles
Porter/Croupier /Voice/Constable/Soldier/Gambler/Sacristan - Henri Amiel
Sergeant/Another Voice/Another Gambler - Bernard Isambier.

CONDUCTOR:
Michel Plasson with the Orchestre de Capitole de Toulouse and Choeurs du Capitole.

DOCUMENTATION:
Libretto in French, English and German. Photos of Massenet, the conductor and the principal singers. No biographical information on the cast. Brief summary of the plot by act. Essay on Massenet and the origin of the opera which touches on the musical and other dramatic forms used in "Manon" by the composer and provides seven musical examples--all this, mind you, without ever once admitting the existence of another standard repertory opera on the same subject but in a radically different style, Puccini's "Manon Lescaut."

FORMAT:
Disk 1 - Prelude, track 1; Act I, tracks 2-9; Act II, tracks 10-16; Act III, tracks 17-22;78:55. Disk 2 - Act III (continued), tracks 1-11; Act IV, tracks 12-18; Act V, tracks 19-20; 74:55.

COMMENTARY:
This is a good, international style performance of Massenet's archetypically French opera, "Manon." Its international credentials are plainly displayed in the fact that the four principal singers are a Rumanian, a Spaniard, a Canadian and a Belgian.

Rumanian soprano Ileana Cotrubas was born in 1939. Her active career on the operatic stage extended from 1967 to 1990. She is a good example of the lighter soprano voices that followed after the era of Callas and Tebaldi. Cotrubas sang such roles as Oscar, Gilda, Blondchen and light-voiced versions of Mimi and Tatyana. Here, she is a good Manon, not quite so (despicably) adorable as De los Angeles and warmer than Sills.

Alfredo Kraus (1927-1999) was a Spaniard. He was an intelligent singer who knew his limits and kept rigidly within them. As a result, his stage career lasted from 1956 well into the 1990s. He kept to the lighter tenor roles of the French-Italian repertory and his specialty was elegance. He was the Duke in Rigoletto, Arturo, Alfredo, Nadir, Nemorino and most particularly, Werther. His fine voice had a unique sound that made him almost as instantly identifiable as Maria Callas. I saw him on stage only once, as Faust in Boito's "Mefistofele." He was a competent actor who looked good and sounded good--things that cannot be said about some more famous tenors who have heard louder cheers. On this recording he is in excellent form, offering a particularly elegant take on that tenorial warhorse, "Ah! fuyez, douce image".

Gino Quilico (b. 1955) is a second generation Canadian opera star. He began his musical studies as a student of his father, Louis Quilico. He held himself to the more lyrical baritone roles of the French-Italian repertory until the mid-1990s when he moved up to Verdi's Ford and Iago. As Manon's cousin Lescaut, he sings attractively but his characterization of the rascally but charming gambler-pimp remains fairly generic.

Belgian bass Jose Van Dam was born as Joseph van Damme in 1940. His stage career began with the Paris Opera in 1961. He has won many plaudits and awards over the years, up to and including the title of baron. I regard him as a sound performer, always good, never the best.

As might be expected in an international style performance, the lesser singing roles and speaking parts are handled with style and aplomb by people who appear to be native French performers, presumably associated with the company of the Capitole in Toulouse.

Michel Plasson, among many other things, is a noted exponent of French opera. The chorus is excellent. The orchestra is fine, although from their playing, its members might as well be Austrian or German as French.

"Manon" is an excellent opera. By attempting to present an image of 18th Century France as well as telling the story of Manon, it is much more diffuse than the tightly focused and passionate "Manon Lescaut" offered by Puccini.

While Massenet's music is tuneful and even seductive, it should be noted that there is not a single admirable person in the story. Manon hasn't a thought in her head that does not involve short term self-gratification. Des Grieux's brains are obviously located some distance below his skull. Lescaut, Manon's cousin Lescaut (originally her brother in the novel) is not only willing but enthusiastic about selling her to the highest bidder, and as often as possible. Count Des Grieux strongly disapproves of his son's shenanigans, but only because they might reflect badly on him--on him!

In form, "Manon" is an opera comique, that is, its musical numbers are separated by stretches of spoken dialogue, as in the works of Offenbach or even "Annie Get Your Gun." Oddly enough, this is not very noticeable in performance for, unlike those others, Massenet's orchestral music hardly ever stops, so that spoken words are almost always heard against a musical background.

There are other excellent recorded versions of "Manon." Naxos offers an impressively remastered version of the 1929 recording which positively glows with authentic vocal performances and French orchestral playing. (Some of the members of that orchestra had played for Massenet, himself.) Critical opinion has long held that the mono version with Victoria de los Angeles made in the early 1950s is nearly flawless. Of digital-era stereo versions, I think this one is the best overall.

Five stars. Et c'est la l'histoire de Manon Lescaut!