Where was the desire, the frisson, the flicker of attraction? Hell, where was the sex? I ask because a week spent at the seedier end of the romance spectrum has left me feeling profoundly unsatisfied. Two classic femmes fatales — Puccini’s convent-girl manqué Manon Lescaut and Janacek’s dark-eyed gypsy Zefka — had their chance to beguile and blew it. There was disquiet, revulsion, confusion and a certain amount of modish awkwardness, but the itchy urgency of it all was absent — the emotional ignition without which neither Manon Lescaut nor The Diary of One Who Disappeared can find their flame.
A chilly night launched Opera Holland Park’s 2019 season, and there wasn’t much more heat coming from the stage. Puccini’s first operatic success isn’t the easy, affable tragedy we get from La bohème or Madame Butterfly. There are rougher edges to both an opera and a heroine that are still under construction, works in progress.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in