The Paris Opera Ballet has toured to Tokyo this month with Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake and Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon. Although Manon entered the repertoire in 1990, this was the first time the company has brought this ballet to Japan. Manon has been performed here by other companies such as The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and National Ballet of Japan but the Paris Opera Ballet showed quite a different approach.
As Manon takes place in the demi-monde society of 18th century Paris, we can easily imagine that the company would be very good at showing the decadence and glamour of this era. The pleasant surprise was that the company was also skilled at depicting the darker side of poverty, sexual desire and prostitution, without losing their polished elegance.
Tokyo had the luxury of seeing three strikingly different leads. Manon is full of characters that are somewhat difficult to sympathise with, but the ballerinas who danced the title role were all superb in their own way.
Myriam Ould-Braham was Manon on February 17th afternoon and 18th evening. She initially played her as an innocent, virtuous young woman, which was shown in her ethereal carriage of arms and beautifully pointed feet. She soon becomes aware of her allure and sees that she could acquire wealth, after her encounter with the prosperous Monsieur G.M. Torn between her love for the handsome but penniless scholar Des Grieux and her fear of poverty, she surrenders to the life of a courtesan. However, although she loves Des Grieux, she is unable to resist the temptations presented by her brother, Lescaut, who acts as her pimp, exploits her and offers her a taste of a glamorous life. Even after her downfall and deportation to swampy Louisiana, Ould-Braham’s innocence remained undiminished until the end, and in her final pas de deux, stripped of her glamour and jewellery, she was left with nothing but her love for Des Grieux. Dorothée Gilbert and Ludmila Pagliero also gave breathtaking, spellbinding, once in a lifetime performances, inhabiting the life of Manon Lescaut herself.
Mathieu Ganio partnered Ould-Braham as her Des Grieux, and his lyrical, delicate phrasing within his solos and their delightful pas de deux in the first act were beautifully matched with Massenet's romantic score. Although Des Grieux’s love for Manon does not waver throughout the ballet, we could see that he was one of the men who exploited her, dipping his hands in card games and cheating. He looked almost pathetic, blinded with his infatuation to Manon. His sincerity and solid support shown in the final pas de deux in the swamps was heartbreaking, with the realisation that he was one of the men to blame for the tragedy of Manon. We could feel the tenderness of their partnership at Manon’s death. Ould-Braham will be retiring in May, Ganio is supposed to retire in 2026, and this memorable performance that both étoiles gave, was a beautiful farewell gift to the Japanese audience.
The dancers in the other roles also contributed to the atmosphere of 18th century Paris, as indeed did the splendour of Nicholas Georgiadis’ opulent sets and costumes, where devastating poverty and affluence existed in close proximity. We could almost smell the odour of the streets crowded with beggars, harlots, rat-catchers and skivvies, alongside the perfume of the courtesans and gentlemen at Madame’s salon. Noteworthy were Andrea Sarri as Lescaut who was superb in his tricky drunken duet with his mistress, yet he also showed that he cared about his sister Manon. Florimond Lorieux was brilliant as the ruthless and repulsive Monsieur G.M., as were Aubane Philbert and Hohyun Kang as the flirtatious, quarrelling Courtesans.
One fact that makes this MacMillan ballet a masterpiece is that, after 50 years, the world of lust, exploitation of women and the social division between rich and poor that is depicted here is more and more apparent in our present society, even in Japan in 2024. This excellent performance by the Paris Opera Ballet made the point even clearer, especially by showing Manon's fear of poverty throughout the performance.
