Manon had its premiere at Slovak National Theatre last week. The full name of the ballet is L’histoire de Manon or The Story of Manon. Despite the 19th century story ballet costumes and even music, Manon is a relatively recent creation, exactly fifty years old, first performed by the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden on 7 March 1974. The choreographer was Englishman and principal choreographer of the Royal Ballet, Kenneth MacMillan.

Story ballet

While a modern work, Manon is at least as fusty as Giselle or Sleeping Beauty, all costumes, decorations and melodramatic music. Since Manon is no transcendental work of genius, its prurience makes it even more part of another epoch. Manon‘s closest relative in the pantheon of story ballets is probably the amoral and vapid The Corsair.

Continue reading MacMillan’s Manon at SND: Sin and Spectacle at uncoy.