Based on the novel by the Abbé Prévost, Massenet’s Manon provides superb rôles for the prima donna and tenor with music that is charming, lyrical and dramatic. This recording showcases Germain Féraldy, one of the great stars of French opera during the inter-war period. She is matched by Joseph Rogatchewsky whose light elegant timbre makes a highly memorable Des Grieux. Under the baton of Elie Cohen, the superb Franco-Belgian cast sing in a conversational fashion that is a lost art today. Together with idiomatic choral singing and a style of orchestral playing that in 1928/9 had not changed since Massenet’s time, this Manon is unsurpassed.