Paramount Presents: Royal Opera Ballet Live in HD – Manon
Kenneth MacMillan’s powerful telling of Manon and Des Greiux’s tragic love is a masterpiece of modern ballet, set to music by Massenet
BALLET IN THREE ACTS
Choreography by Kenneth MacMillan
Music by Jules Massenet
Run Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes including two intermissions
Encore Broadcast. Original Performance May 3, 2018
Manon’s brother Lescaut is offering her to the highest bidder when she meets Des Grieux and falls in love. They elope to Paris, but when Monsieur G.M. offers Manon a life of luxury as his mistress she can’t resist. With the Lescauts’ encouragement Des Grieux cheats at cards in an attempt to win Monsieur G.M.’s fortune. They are caught. Manon is arrested as a prostitute and deported to New Orleans, followed by Des Grieux. On the run, Manon dies from exhaustion.
Kenneth MacMillan’s source for Manon was the 18th-century French novel already adapted for opera by Massenet and Puccini. The premiere was given on 7 March 1974, with the lead roles danced by Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. The ballet quickly became a staple of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, and a touchstone of adult, dramatic dance.
MacMillan found new sympathy with the capricious Manon and her struggle to escape poverty. Designs by his regular collaborator Nicholas Georgiadis reflect this, depicting a world of lavish splendour polluted by miserable destitution. 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.
Date and Time
Saturday Jun 23, 2018
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
June 23, 2018 -- 1:00PM
Location
The Paramount Theater
Fees/Admission
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Contact Information
4349791922
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