Event

L'HISTOIRE DE MANON - Ballet Film

From the Opéra National de Paris:

Massenet's L'HISTOIRE DE MANON
Tickets are $15

Choreographer - Kenneth MacMillan
Conductor - Martin Yates
Sets and Costumes - Nicholas Georgiadis
Lighting - John B. Read
Orchestra - Paris Opera Orchestra

Étoiles, Premiers Danseurs and Corps de Ballet

Inspired by L'Abbé Prévost's legendary heroine, Kenneth MacMillan expresses his fascination for offbeat characters and dramatic subjects. The choreographer faithfully follows the novel's plot and reconstructs the tragic story of the sensual yet naïve Manon - more victim than architect of her fate. In Regency Paris, bourgeois society gorges itself on luxury and easy pleasures. Carried off in this whirlwind, Manon is unable to resist temptation and devastates the faithful Des Grieux in her fall.

The choreographer constructs his ballet on a mosaic of extracts from Massenet, finding in the music all the drama, freshness and romanticism necessary for this grand fresco in dance. From crowded ball scenes to spirited, romantic, spirited pas de deux, Manon's passionate existence propels inevitably toward the ballet's sublime, yet tragic conclusion.