Love Don’t Mean a Thing: The Met's Manon Lescaut, Plus Duke & Ella

Karita Mattila as Manon Lescaut, with Marcello Giordani as the Chevalier des Grieux

HAVE YOU HEARD? Love has its ups and downs. The briefest look at the history of the arts, Western and otherwise, confirms a view of love as a decidedly multivalent, unpredictable force, bound to be misrepresented when characterized only by its towering highs and tortured lows.

That’s why, to honor Valentine’s Day this year, we wanted to present two somewhat opposed yet complementary pictures of this thing that makes the world go ‘round: Puccini’s captivating Manon Lascaut, about a torrid affair that sounds gorgeous but ends badly; and Duke & Ella on the Cote d’Azur, an exciting historic video from 1967 showing jazz immortals Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald at the height of their powers and sharing obvious mutual love that still feels fresh today.

Ella Fitzgerald

Even if you’re only an opera fan or only jazz fan, we hope you enjoy both of these programs this week - because we think your ears may be able to respond to as wide a spectrum of lovely experiences as your heart!

• The Metropolitan Opera Production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut   $4.99 for 72 hours

One of today's most compelling singing actresses, Karita Mattila takes on the irresistible role of Manon Lescaut, the headstrong young woman torn between a life of luxury and the call of her true love: the Chevalier des Grieux, played by Marcello Giordani.

The young Puccini lavished some of his most sensual music on this early hit, conducted here by the Met's beloved James Levine.

• Duke and Ella on the Cote d’Azur   $1.99 for 99 hours

This video brings together two of the greatest names in jazz: Duke Ellington live in the South of France in 1967, with Ella Fitzgerald as his special guest. The video is in black-and-white, but the music and these great artists are dazzlingly colorful.

DON'T MISS: That world-class-savvy introduction by Ellington, and Ella's rendition of the jazz classic, "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing").

WATCH FOR: The artist Joan Miro showing Duke Ellington his work and other modern masterpieces during a special tour of the Fondation Maeght museum in Saint Paul de Vence.