MASSENET-LUCAS: “MANON.” Orchestra of the Royal Opera...

MASSENET-LUCAS: “MANON.” Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Richard Bonynge. London 414 585-2 (two compact discs). Balletomanes will remain forever in debt to London Records for its loyal commemoration of important ballet scores during the past three decades. But this pastiche score by Leighton Lucas for Kenneth MacMillan’s 1974 Royal Ballet commission, one of the great pairings of Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell, simply doesn’t sustain interest after the curtain falls. Lucas’ work is clever; he includes not a single note from Massenet’s opera on the Abbe Prevost’s novel, while recycling the composer’s songs and instrumental works (especially the “Elegie,” given more prominence than the little tune merits). Bonynge’s performance is long on climaxes, short on suavity.