David Patrick Stearns looks ahead to the OCP's productionof Puccini's tragic love story.
The old Broadway fable about a girl plucked out of the chorus and learning the leading-lady role overnight now has an operatic equivalence in Philadelphia. The up-and-coming Academy of Vocal Arts soprano Michelle Johnson was hardly a chorus girl, and her new role of Manon Lescaut wasn't learned overnight, but she's coming as close to that as any opera singer could in her Friday opening at the Academy of Music. Remarkably, The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns found the rehearsal studio to be relatively calm and methodical.
The Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Manon Lescaut opens Friday April 13th at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and runs through April 29th.