Manon, Ballet by K. MacMillan
The Vienna State Opera stages a production of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, his ballet that is based on the novel Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. Often considered to be a masterpiece of the literary ballet genre, Manon is set to music by Jules Massenet, the French Romantic-era composer. When the ballet was first performed at the Royal Opera House in London on 7 March 1974, the original orchestration was by Leighton Lucas, an English conductor and composer. In 2011, a new orchestration was produced by Martin Yates, the version that this production at the Wiener Staatsoper uses.
The story of Manon has been a fruitful one for stage adaptations. Not only did Massenet write an opera based on the aforementioned novel, which debuted in 1884, but Giacomo Puccini also created his version, Manon Lescaut, for an 1893 production. MacMillan's balletic version makes use of various extracts from Massenet's repertoire and splits the action up into three acts. Love, distress, greed, passion and ambition are all drawn out through his choreography against a backdrop of grinding poverty. Indeed, the choreographer said that the title character is not so much afraid of being poor as she is ashamed of poverty which, given the 18th-century setting, he equated to little more than a long, slow death.
The ballet opens with a scene at an inn where Manon's brother, a character called Lescaut, notices that an old man has taken an interest in her. He bargains with the man over her while Manon meets - and falls in love with - a young student named des Grieux. Lescaut makes a bargain with the old man but the two young lovers have already decided to escape to Paris where des Grieux has lodgings. Later, des Grieux is writing to his father about his new love and subsequently leaves to post it. While he is gone, Lescaut and the old man appear. Manon is offered riches and a comfortable lifestyle if she will abandon des Grieux. As the action plays out, des Grieux is also offered material compensation if he will give Manon up.
In the second act, all the main characters attend a party. Des Grieux plays the old man at cards hoping to win some of his wealth and strengthen his position. However, things take a turn for the worse when des Grieux is discovered to be cheating and Manon is arrested on the grounds that she has been prostituting herself. The climactic third act is set in New Orleans where des Grieux and Manon face further struggles and temptations but will their love for one another survive?
The Vienna Opera House is a wonderful venue for such a dramatic and much-loved ballet by one of Britain's most celebrated choreographers in which the motives and psychologies of the principal characters are drawn out superbly through dance.