L’Histoire de Manon

« A beloved masterpiece – The late Kenneth MacMillan’s 1974 three-act masterpiece Manon has developed into a Royal Ballet signature work loved by dancers and public alike. With some of Jules Massenet’s most beautiful and expressive music danced within Nicholas Georgiadis’s huge, dark and deeply evocative 18th-century designs, the work has a depth and complexity involving the whole company. MacMillan surges through Paris’s underbelly dealing with individuals and crowds with equal dramatic impact, telling a tragic tale with a romantic spin. An irresistible combination. » – THE DAILY EXPRESS

« The Royal Ballet’s current season has been commemorating Kenneth MacMillan on the 25th anniversary of his death with a wide-ranging conspectus of his works. Now, for the latest of its many revivals, comes his enduringly popular three-act Manon, created in 1974, and a signature classic of the Covent Garden repertory.

With its strong narrative drawn from Abbé Prévost’s 1730s French novel, its spectacular display of full-company talents, its variety of dramatic roles and the richness of MacMillan’s choreographic invention, the ballet has also been eagerly sought internationally, with productions by companies in 15 countries worldwide. » – THE TIMES

« Manon is an ideal first ballet for those who cannot envisage anything other than white tutus and fairies, but it is certainly not one for the kiddies. Indeed, it comes with a cautionary note that it contains scenes of an adult nature, including sexual violence. Manon’s world is one in which women are commodities to be used and abused — Prévost’s novel on which the ballet is based may be 260 years old but, sadly, it still has relevance today.

At first glance, the story seems rather sordid: an innocent young girl falls from grace and eventually, arrested for prostitution and deported to New Orleans, she expires in the Louisiana swamplands, her distraught lover beside her. But this is one of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s greatest works, and the ballet contains some of his most beautiful and thrilling pas de deux. He was never one to hold back with his luscious — and very sexy — choreography (hence the adult only recommendation).

This popular, three-act ballet, with beautiful designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, is never out of the Royal Ballet’s repertory for long. The music is a selection of pieces by Massenet, and it works well, especially in the powerful last scene. Ladies, wear your waterproof mascara — only those with a heart of ice could fail to be moved by this tragic tale. » – THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

« In the opening scene of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Manon, based on Prévost’s 18th-century novel Manon Lescaut, a young woman arrives at an inn in Paris, destined for a convent. Stepping from her coach into the courtyard, Manon is presented with the city’s most sordid face. There are street hawkers, beggars in rags, nimble pickpockets. Powdered demimondaines compete for the attention of scrofulous roués, their assignments brokered by pimps. Even as Manon first touches her silk shoe to the cobbles, her brother is negotiating the price of her virginity.

Lingering on the fringes of this louche scene, meanwhile, are the two men who will decide Manon’s destiny: the handsome young scholar Des Grieux, and the rich, repulsive Monsieur GM. Caught up in the thrill of first love, Manon elopes with Des Grieux and briefly shares his frugal lodgings. But GM will not be denied his perverse pleasures, and uses his wealth to lure her away. The ballet, like Prévost’s novel, presents us with a world of brutal contrasts, of decadent luxury and wretched poverty, and with a heroine torn between passion and pragmatism.

The contradictions in her character make Manon one of the most coveted roles in the classical repertoire, and every ballerina approaches her differently » – THE GUARDIAN

« Kenneth MacMillan’s retelling of Abbé Prévost’s cautionary tale of a young man brought low by an amoral young beauty has been a mainstay of the Royal Ballet repertoire since 1974. The current revival is vividly played and danced by some first-rate casts. » – THE FINANCIAL TIMES