Rene Fleming: Live at the Opera National de Paris

What a Singer! What Productions! What a Bargain!
The three operas contained here, live performances at the Paris Opera and starring Renée Fleming, are Manon, Rusalka, and Capriccio. I reviewed all three of them at Amazon US when they came out as singles and will append those reviews here:

Manon:

This DVD comes from a June 2001 performance at the Opéra National National de Paris/Opéra Bastille and stars Renée Fleming as Manon and Marcelo Álvarez as des Grieux.

Fleming says that Manon is one of her favorite roles, and I can believe it. She invests the character with a good deal of feeling, and although she seems a little old and not quite giddy enough to be playing the simple school-girl in Act I, she gets better and better as the action proceeds. Her singing, of course, is nonpareil. Indeed, for me the action doesn't really catch fire until the final scene of Act II (although 'Nous vivrons à Paris,' in Act I, is exciting and beautifully sung by the young...





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