 The
UBC Opera Ensemble and Theatre UBC present a traditional production
of Massenet's Manon at the Chan Centre in four performances March 4
through 7, 2004. In the ongoing exchange with artists from the Usti
nad Labem Opera Theatre in the Czech Republic UBC invites conductor,
Norbert
Baxa to return to the podium and welcomes current Czech opera sensation
tenor, Ales Briscein to perform the role of the Chevalier des Grieux.
The production will be directed by Nancy Hermiston.
Recent UBC opera productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and Smetana's
The Bartered Bride have received rave reviews from audience members
and critics alike: "Here the singers had a maturity and command
of the difficult but thrilling music of this great work far beyond
what is generallye xpected of a student company."
Two of the three UBC Music Students, Rhoslyn Jones, Justin Welsh,
and Neema Bickersteth, who recently won at the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Western Canada District Auditions will be staring
in this production of Manon. In the March 4th & 6th performances
Rhoslyn Jones is in the role of Manon while Justin Welsh is Lescaut.
The Seattle round of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions will be held
February 29th. By opening night we will know if any of our students
will have advanced to the final round in New York.
Short synopsis: Manon by Jules Massenet: (first performed January
19, 1884) Manon, a beautiful young woman from the French countryside,
escorted by her cousin Lescaut, is on her way to live in a convent.
She finds on this, her first journey, that men are captivated by
her. Enjoying the attention she craves more. The Chevalier des Grieux,
himself about to enter a monastery, sees Manon at a roadside inn.
They fall in love at once and run off to Paris together. The opera,
based on a novel by Abbé Prévost, was written for audiences
of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. This story of first innocent
love is set during the early 18th Century, a period of notoriously
corrupt times in France, which somewhat paralleled Massenet's own
time. Through the opera we find that love may not conquer all as,
in the end, broken in body and spirit Manon dies in the arms of her
love.
The opera will be sung in French with English sur-titles. |
