Manon From The MET

Today was a gorgeous day, still I decided to spend the better part of the day indoors, watching the live simulcast of Jules Massenet's opera, Manon, featuring Anna Netrebko as Manon and Piotr Berczala as the Chevalier des Grieux. The performance was timed for broadcast for Europe mostly, so it started at 11 am in my time zone, and took up a good four hours... This was a Laurent Pelly production. The French opera director also acted as the costume designer for this show. And what a job he did, too. He went from gray tones in Act 1 through a black and white palette with a touch of pink, back to an elegant off white against black, to a screaming fuchsia gown for Manon among beautiful shades of pale rose, lilac, cream and pink at the height of the drama, just to return to the brownish-gray tattered rags at the end... of which I can show you nothing!
Instead, I thought this image of dried old wood branches lovingly hugging each other might convey some of the tragedy of the life and love of Manon... a poor substitute, I agree.