Manon - Royal Ballet and Opera

Manon - Royal Ballet and Opera photos

Manon - Royal Ballet and Opera description

Of all the great story ballets in the Royal Ballet's repertoire, few are as devastatingly beautiful — or as heartbreaking — as Manon. Kenneth MacMillan's masterpiece is a ballet that seduces you just as its heroine seduces everyone around her: gradually, irresistibly, until you find yourself completely undone. This is storytelling of the highest order, danced by artists at the very peak of their craft.

Based on the celebrated novel Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost, the ballet tells the story of Manon, a young woman of ravishing beauty and fatal ambiguity, who falls passionately in love with the student Des Grieux but cannot resist the lure of wealth and luxury. Her brother Lescaut manoeuvres her between the two worlds she inhabits — desire and opulence — until corruption, betrayal, and tragedy close in from all sides. By the final act, as Manon and Des Grieux cling to each other in the Louisiana swamps, there is scarcely a dry eye in the house.

The score, drawn from the music of Jules Massenet and arranged with extraordinary elegance, is the perfect partner to MacMillan's choreography — lush, aching, and full of longing. The pas de deux between Manon and Des Grieux rank among the most magnificent in all of ballet, combining technical brilliance with raw emotional power.

MacMillan, the visionary choreographer who also gave the world Romeo and Juliet and Mayerling, created Manon for the Royal Ballet in 1974. Fifty years on, it remains a towering achievement — proof that ballet can tell the most complex human stories with the force and nuance of the finest drama.

Do not miss this chance to experience Manon at the Royal Opera House — one of the greatest nights that ballet has to offer.

Playing at Royal Opera House

Bow Street, London, WC2E 9DD GB (venue info)

Directions

Performance Times