Jules Massenet - Manon / Dessay, Villazon, Ramey, Lanza, Henry, Perez, McVicar (Gran Teatre del Liceu 2007)

David McVicar's staging plays well in Tanya McCallin's traditional costumes and unconventional sets. Manon enters wearing functional, boyish traveling clothes, later graduating to a gold, green, and cream gown, and finally, a ragged shift for the finale. The aristocrats are in foppish outfits, wigs, and beauty marks, underlining McVicar's apparent subtext of Manon as a condemnation of 18th-century French high society, something that would likely have surprised Massenet. That theme is carried throughout the opera, as the stage is often littered with onlookers, sometimes in the on-stage tiered amphitheatre and even in the intimacy of the room shared by the lovers, where extras not only appear in the wings but also arrange themselves in awkward positions that divert the viewer's attention. To the degree such stagings lessen the sentimentality of the narratives, they're a plus; but McVicar's viewpoint does take something away from the story's intimacy. His production does succeed mightily in suggesting where each scene takes place with minimal props--a table here, some chairs there, and we are in a room, a gambling hall, a dark quayside. Francois Roussillon's TV direction is also smoothly functional, letting us take in the scenes while also getting close to the characters. --Dan Davis