This 1980 film from the Met stars Renata Scotto, in splendid voice, in one of the few roles that she committed to film. Her performance is matched by that of the youthful Plácido Domingo, as Des Grieux. Other than that, I am afraid that there is not much to recommend it. Domingo filmed this opera again, three years later, opposite Kiri Te Kanawa but preferable to both those versions is the 1997 recording from La Scala. starring Maria Guleghina and José Cura, both in fine voice.
The 1997 film is in pin-sharp widescreen whereas this 1980 version is in fuzzy square vision. Also, the singers' voices sound distant, as though the recording was made with just a couple of microphones slung across the auditorium. To be fair, that's what live opera really sounds like but listeners to opera on film are used to the singers' voices being much more forward.
As I said in my review of Massenet's opera Manon, I only got as far as page 18 in the Abbé Prévost's novel Manon Lescaut because I made the mistake of trying to read it in French and I got bogged down in the imperfect subjunctives. I don't know how the story ends but Massenet's version has always struck me as more plausible. Puccini's music is beautiful and the first two acts are fine but the final two acts, with Manon being deported and dying of a fever in the American desert, are just plain silly. OK, OK, who expects opera to be plausible?
The 1997 film is in pin-sharp widescreen whereas this 1980 version is in fuzzy square vision. Also, the singers' voices sound distant, as though the recording was made with just a couple of microphones slung across the auditorium. To be fair, that's what live opera really sounds like but listeners to opera on film are used to the singers' voices being much more forward.
As I said in my review of Massenet's opera Manon, I only got as far as page 18 in the Abbé Prévost's novel Manon Lescaut because I made the mistake of trying to read it in French and I got bogged down in the imperfect subjunctives. I don't know how the story ends but Massenet's version has always struck me as more plausible. Puccini's music is beautiful and the first two acts are fine but the final two acts, with Manon being deported and dying of a fever in the American desert, are just plain silly. OK, OK, who expects opera to be plausible?