Sabina Puértolas triumphs as Manon at the Ópera de Oviedo

Sabina Puértolas has started her 2023/24 season with a great triumph at the Ópera de Oviedo, where she proved to be a world-class Manon.

The production that opens the season of the Ópera de Oviedo is by Emilio Sagi. The Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (OSPA) plays in the pit of the Teatro Campoamor and is conducted by their chief conductor Nuno Coelho This year, the theatre celebrates 75 years of opera in Oviedo, opening the season with Manon by Massenet, just as they did 75 years ago when Victoria de los Ángeles sang the title role.

After singing her first productions of Massenet’s Manon at the Teatro Villamarta in Jerez de la Frontera and at the Teatro Municipal of Santiago de Chile, this is Sabina Puértolas’ third time singing the title role of Manon, which is rapidly becoming one of his new signature roles. She will sing it again in Tenerife in the same production by Emilio Sagi, on 21, 23 and 25 November this year.

The press about Sabina Puértolas as Massenet’s Manon

"The Aragonese singer is in magnificent form and controls her silky instrument with ease, propriety and grace. The character fits her like a glove for her elegance, her grace, for that indefinable and valuable feminine touch that is so elusive. Also because it gives her the opportunity to show her expressiveness and display her exquisite art of singing. The aria Adieu ma petite table and the Gavota allow her to show off the very best". (El Español - El Cultural - Arturo Reverter)

“Manon is Sabina Puértolas

It is not at all easy to achieve a dramaturgical effect of this depth in an operatic role that so often tends to stereotype. Here it is achieved thanks to an exceptional protagonist who will long be remembered in our theatre: Sabina Puértolas. She has earned, in her own right, a place in the "Olympus" of the Campoamor, with a performance in the wake of the greats. Exceptional in form and substance: naïve, sensual, aggressive, madly in love, courageous, she embodies the role vocally with an expressive beauty that shows the evolution of Manon through the score. Superb moments - "Voyons, Maon", "Adieu, notre petite table" - and the duets with Des Grieux marked an intervention of volcanic intensity from beginning to end, with a closing of high emotional voltage.” (La Nueva España - Cosme Marina)

"Puértolas accompanied her persona with courage and daring; from the innocent and carefree girl of the first act, still a little hesitant, to that of the vicious lover already pierced by her imminent betrayal, which led her to perform a very delicate "Adieu, notre petite table". The soprano continued to grow as the moral corruption of her character progressed, with such applauded heights as the amusing and gymnastic "Profitons bien de la jeunesse", and the climax of the reunion in the abbey, already after the interval, in the duet with Celso Albelo, where the couple performed, possibly, one of the best". (La Nueva España - Chus Neira)

"In this case, it was Sabina Puértolas who gave life to Manon with a great performance that brought beautiful moments such as in "Adieu notre petite table", the most applauded part of the evening, together with the well-known "Profitons bien de la jeunesse", in which the male part of the Intermezzo Choir accompanied at full power. The soprano's fine form was evident throughout the evening, in a demanding role that suits her like a glove. Very good dramatically and even better vocally, displaying a wealth of nuances, an always elegant singing line, beautiful coloratura and sweet, delicate trebles. Without doubt, it was her night" (Scherzo - Nuria Blanco Álvarez).

"Resounding success of 'Manon' with Sabina Puértolas. 

Manon transfigured into a star. Sabina Puértolas shone in the opening of the season, in which we were at times drawn into the very essence of opera. Sabina Puértolas' Manon is a role as varied as the singer. It evolves dramatically and, most difficult of all, vocally, as the opera unfolds, so it can be said that there are at least two types of singing. One, the light soprano, culminating in the Gavotte's famous 'Obéissons quand leur voix apelle' scene in Act III, with a D-sharp sustained with assurance and panache. But there is also the melancholic, sweet Manon, who, through an object, evokes an immediate past and a love about to disappear. It is the Manon of 'Adieu, notre petite table', sung with a natural lyricism, without drops of that somewhat cheesy blandness with which Massenet is sometimes interpreted. And finally, the most dramatic and stammering lyric soprano in the final duet. A duet in which the tragedy of the opera culminates in an infinite and touching tenderness. A Manon transfigured into a star, in the voice of Sabina Puertólas". (El Comercio, Cultura - Ramón Avello)     

“And I have the feeling that if that were possible, Victoria would have smiled at the end of it, because the great protagonist was, precisely, Sabina Puértolas, the soprano from Navarre and Aragon who swept the audience off their feet with a solid performance full of personality. And I would like to point out that if there is one thing that makes her performance meritorious, it is undoubtedly her ability to bring to a character so deeply rooted in our historical musical memory the voice and characteristics of the Catalan soprano with sufficient personality to construct a distinguished young woman. Where with Victoria de los Ángeles the protagonist is an angelic girl, self-conscious and innocent without being childish or sappy, with Puértolas Manon is a young woman, full of character, dominant and courageous. It is only at the moment of the arrest in the gambling hall that Manon falls, physically and psychologically, as she becomes aware of her mistakes. Until then she has been a young but daring woman, who has feared nothing; and this is conveyed by the soprano with a strong, dense voice, with vocal details that underline that she is a woman of character, who controls and dominates all situations. It is to be appreciated that these peculiarities are sought and that we can experience another way of approaching such a familiar protagonist as Manon Lescaut.

The audience at the last of the five performances of Massenet's title emphasised their joy by giving a resounding and unanimous ovation to Sabina Puértolas, who dominated the stage from her first appearance. There were even attempts to request an encore at the end of her Profitons bien de la jeuneusse, such was the satisfaction of the audience.” (Platea Magazine – Enrique Bert)

"The real star, eternal protagonist and always young Manon was embodied by the Navarrese soprano Sabina Puértolas, who made us fall in love again. Almost omnipresent, enchanting, seductive, innocent and corrupt, elegant and decadent, always refined, dominating the scene from beginning to end, her voice wandered through all the character's moods. From the duet with her cousin Lescaut, the delicate aria at the little table "adieu notre petite table" from the second act, the very well-known and beautiful "Profitons bien de la jeunesse" from the third act, the most applauded part of Sunday: each intervention of the Navarrese was a pleasure for the ear and the eye, full of emotions from Saint-Sulpice to the final "Je sens une puré flamee" of the repentant and dual Manon to put the finishing touch to a celebration that will go down in the history of opera in Oviedo. " (Opera World - Pablo Álvarez Siana)

"Sabina Puértolas' fascinating 'Manon' triumphs at the Campoamor

Manon is a multifaceted character, who throughout the performance moves from almost childlike innocence to the most sensual concupiscence; from self-interested love to generous passion; from cheerful frivolity to tragic gravity. Sabina Puértolas interprets not only all the facets of Manon, but also the internal evolution of the character with scenic naturalness and expressive lyricism in song. Puértolas' Manon is excellent and fascinating, in which we have seen the innocent child, the sensual Lolita, the distinguished courtesan, the convinced lover and, above all, the woman who is entering tragedy as the end of life. Almost all her arias were applauded, among them the moving 'Adieu, notre petite table', converted into a universal song of longing, and above all, that final duet with Des Grieux in which Manon, as well as dying repentantly and sweetly, is transfigured by the work of love". (El Comercio - Ramón Avello)

"It was, therefore, a special evening for the opening of the Oviedo Opera season, and it more than lived up to expectations, with an outstanding leading lady: Sabina Puértolas in a state of grace, who literally played her role with overwhelming passion and emotion that carried the show on its wings, achieving a spectacular success, not common in Oviedo premieres. Puértolas grew in the incarnation of a Manon who moved through the time span of the plot, from adolescence to death, from candour to passionate rapture to final desolation with a manifest exquisiteness in her singing and a creative brilliance of the role that was captivating from the first to the last note. Hers is a Manon that will remain in time". (Opera Actual - Cosme Marina)