L'Histoire de Manon

The ballet adaptation of Abbé Prévost’s novel L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut shows Sir Kenneth MacMillan at his very finest, attesting as it does to his profound insight into human psychology, choreographic craft and narrative skill. The artist admirably expresses the power of fateful love in the central characters’ impassioned duets.

A highly dramatic and heart-wrenching ballet, Manon aptly depicts the heroine’s desperate endeavour to escape a life of poverty and degradation. Her one and only advantage is youth and mesmerising beauty. Manon Lescaut and Des Grieux, a frivolous student, fall in love with each other, which gives rise to an extremely emotional and destructive drama. The ill-fated couple’s love is subject to a variety of trials and failures, yet it grows ever stronger.