Ruth Leon recommends…. Manon – Royal Ballet

Manon – Royal Ballet

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Kenneth Macmillan’s fabulous Manon isn’t in the Royal Ballet’s performance programme for this season so I thought we should remind ourselves of what a towering achievement it is. This Royal Ballet production stars  Sarah Lamb   as Manon, the girl torn between her desire for a life of splendour and riches with Lescaut (Vadim Muntagiroc),    and her devotion to her true love Des Grieux  (Ryoichi Hirano).

MacMillan’s spectacular ensemble scenes for the whole Company create vivid, complex portraits of the distinct societies of Paris and New Orleans. But it is Manon and Des Grieux’s impassioned pas de deux – recalling the intensity of MacMillan’s earlier Romeo and Juliet – that drive this tragic story, and make Manon one of MacMillan’s most powerful dramas.

Scroll down on the Royal Ballet Manon link and you will find  a little documentary  entitled Macmillan’s Masterpiece where all the leading players in this production talk about Macmillan’s ballet and their place in it. It’s a fine introduction. If you are not familiar with Manon it’s worth watching it first, before you click on the link for the ballet itself.

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