Levine conveys the tensions and atmosphere of a stage performance in a way that plainly owes much to his experience at the Metropolitan...it avoids the feeling of a studio performance....[Pavarotti], characteristically, points word meaning with a bright-eyed intensity that compels attention.

With Luciano Pavarotti as a powerful Des Grieux, James Levine conducts a comparably big-boned performance of Manon Lescaut, bringing out the red-blooded drama of Puccini's first big success, while not ignoring its warmth and tender poetry...The rest of the cast is strong too, with Dwayne Croft a magnificent Lescaut