RECORD REVIEWS

MASSENET: “Manon.” Victoria de los Angeles, Henri Legay, Michel Dens, Jean Borthayre; forces of Opera-Comique; Pierre Monteux, conducting. EMI 7 63549 2 (three compact discs).

MASSENET: “Manon” (in Italian). Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Rolando Panerai , Antonio Zerbini, forces of La Scala; Peter Maag, conducting. MEL 27046 (two compact discs).

The reissue of the classic De los Angeles “Manon” on CD, lovingly conducted by Monteux, is especially welcome. In 1955 the soprano’s voice was in its refulgent prime, warm and voluptuous in its middle and lower ranges, secure enough at the top to manage a D-flat with little effort. The haunting color changes she was able to ring in such set pieces as “Voyons, Manon” and “Adieu, notre petite table,” remind us how much the Met lost when she left in 1961. Her French, though gently accented, coexists comfortably with that of her genuinely Gallic colleagues. Legay is an elegant if somewhat wispy Des Grieux, Dens a stylish Lescaut and Borthayre a sumptuous Comte. The ensemble work coaxed from all participants by Monteux, then 89, is exemplary. A dividend on the final CD is Chausson’s “Poeme de l’Amour et de la Mer,” luxuriantly recorded by De los Angeles in 1969.

A striking contrast and worthy curio is the 1969 broadcast from Scala in Italian. It may not be exactly Massenet’s masterpiece, but it shows strong evidence of two of the loveliest lyric voices around at the time, Freni and Pavarotti, before they began taking on heavier parts, losing some of their freshness and flexibility in the process. Both were singers of gratifying sensitivity, especially Freni in “Addio, o nostro picciol desco” and Pavarotti in the Dream Aria, but they pull out all the Italianate stops in a thrilling Saint-Sulpice duet. The Cours-la-Reine is cut, but Manon’s Gavotte is inserted in the gambling scene.

Panerai is a smooth, cynical Lescaut. Maag often can’t resist Pucciniesque climaxes, but otherwise gives excellent support.