Upon viewing Opera Australia’s latest stage of Massenet’s Manon, one would easily be forgiven for surprise. Compared to Opera Australia’s staging of Tosca, also playing, Manon stands as a testament to the overwhelming extravagance of traditional Opera. Where Tosca was modernised with gritty lasciviousness, Manon’s costuming is beautifully lush and intricate. The use of wigs and make-up situate the piece firmly within the period for the staging of what is, for the most part, a traditional love story. Manon and Le Chevalier meet when she is just sixteen years of age, and steal away to a small villa to be together. What struck me about this performance is the strength of the cast, both dramatically and musically. Side characters were cast perfectly, especially Guillot de Morfontaine (Kanen Breen, whose comic timing and flamboyant mannerisms made for delightful interludes between heavier scenes) and Manon’s cousin Lescaut (José Carbó‘s voice was strong and rich but maintained a characteristic quality that suited the role to a tee.)
In regards to the two lead roles, Amelia Farrugia’s portrayal of Manon was skilful and nuanced, appearing at times innocent and lovelorn, and at others, spoiled and delighted by excess. Farrugia is a joy to listen to, with an acute control of dynamic range used sensitively to draw the audience in, and her transition between the different aspects of her character was seamless and extremely convincing. 
Though I wondered at first whether her love interest, Le Chevalier Des Grieux, found a strange fit with Julian Gavin, because of the way he seemed to brood, he ended out being a perfect fit as he matures and plans to join the priesthood. The moment where Le Chevalier cries out to God to fill the space of love is the pinnacle of the performance. Both heartfelt and fragile, Julian Gavin fills the space with a dark poignancy, exhibiting the weakening power of love before religious iconography. This scene is also a wonderful example of the versatility of the set, made up of two walls, adorned with archways. Combined with a change in lighting, the company was able to make use of familiar props to create multiple scenes which exhibited the lavishness of the production exceptionally well.
However, these operas are not as different as their current staging presents them. It seems, in Opera Australia’s choice to simultaneously stage Manon, Tosca and La Traviata, that they have, perhaps unknowingly, begun a series which praises the follies of female characters so upswept into love that they incur upon themselves great tragedy. The well-known Canadian novelist and short story writer Margaret Atwood once wrote, “Let us now praise stupid women…Men love them because they make even stupid men feel smart: women for the same reason… but mostly because without them there would be no stories… Imagine a world without stories! But that’s exactly what you would have, if all the women were wise.” We can’t blame the authors, really, if they choose the characters which take their works down the most breathtaking of alternatives. Where Tosca led her lover to a scaffold with her jealousy, Manon abandoned hers for a richer man. Where Tosca find herself paying for her follies with her life, Manon did the same. Opera Australia’s summer season of women, continuing with La Traviata, seems somewhat preoccupied with women strong enough to dismantle the world, rose by rose. While it may be our right to hope for a better heroine, we must not go too far. As Atwood says, she was created for our intrigue and our schadenfreude. Let us now praise stupid women, for theirs are the operas of true fascination.
Manon is at the Sydney Opera House on January 28th and then February 3rd, 6th (Matinee), 10th and 13th.
