Artistic director Ingrid Lorentzen about Manon
It is rare to see dancing so beautiful on such an unattractive theme. In Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon love has a price, and the female body is a source of worship, shame and punishment. Nor is Manon Lescaut a heroic character in the classical mode. She is confronted by impossible choices, she is both naïve and complex, passionate and materialistic – it is a story about a girl that tries to avoid a life in poverty at any price.
Now, the curtain rises for MacMillan’s classic for the second time in Norway – in a vibrant production with new set design by JohnKristian Alsaker and costumes by Ingrid Nylander, created here in 2015. The production was a boost for the company at the Norwegian premiere – indeed for the entire house.
The story saw the light of day in 1731, in the novel L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost. While Puccini and Massenet both wrote an opera about her, her story also fits perfectly for ballet, something MacMillan – the master of narrative dance – saw when he created his Manon for The Royal Ballet.
While the stage is abundant with colour and splendour, it is in the contrasts MacMillan really grips us – when he stops and allows Massenet’s evocative music to roll on while Manon and her beloved Des Grieux freeze in an instant and shut out the world around them. Here, an arabesque becomes more than a classical pose: it is a longing for something greater; love, but with reservations. All this we sense in the fraction of a second.
The steps created in 1974 are also frozen in time, and yet there is an ongoing development. MacMillan died in 1992, but his works live on, danced by new generations of dance artists, each with their own approach. This time it is Robert Tewsley, one of the biggest stars in the dance world, who stages Manon with our dancers. With him are two other iconic interpreters, Zenaida Yanowsky and Edward Watson. On stage we meet four principal couples alternating in the main roles – Anaïs Touret and Ricardo Castellanos, Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken and Dingkai Bai, Whitney Jensen and Martin Dauchez, Melissa Hough and Douwe Dekkers – all aglow.
Jules Massenet's score lets us sense Manon's destiny before it plays out on stage, and at the conductor's podium stands Maria Seletskaja. As a former ballet dancer, she has a unique understanding of the interaction between dancers and orchestra, between the pit and the stage. She and Ermanno Florio will take turns conducting the Opera Orchestra through the course of performances.
Yes, it is rare to see such beautiful acting and dancing on such an ugly theme. It is also rare to see MacMillan's choreography presented in the way Robert Tewsley does: almost cinematic, as if we are watching the Parisian street life unfold in a period drama. Manon Lescaut was created 300 years ago, the theme is even older, and she comes alive in the moment when you, the audience, take place in the auditorium, the lights are dimmed, and the orchestra starts to play.
Welcome!
Ingrid Lorentzen, ballet director
