During his career, Sir Kenneth MacMillan managed to reinvent not just the language of ballet, but also its subject matter: on many occasions he reached for modern, socially and societally charged themes that no one had ever dared to touch in any genre, let alone in dance. He was met with this criticism also after the 1974 premiere of Manon: even though it won enormous acclaim from audiences, critics were shocked by an immoral plotline that was completely unprecedented in the world of classical ballet at the time. Leighton Lucas created the score of the ballet based on Massenet’s works: although using nothing from Manon itself, he compiled the musical material from the composer’s many other operas and oratorios, which Martin Yates later re-orchestrated in 2011. Manon is performed with MacMillan’s original scenery and costumes on the stage of the Opera House.

AUTHORS

Choreographer: Sir Kenneth MacMillan
Composer: Jules Massenet
Music arranged by: Martin Yates
Set and costume designer: Nicholas Georgiadis
Costume supervisor: Donna Raphael
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Production director: Jo Maund
Taught from the Benesh notation by: Gary Harris
Staged by: Maina Gielgud
Répétiteurs: István Kohári, Albert Mirzoyan, Ildikó Pongor, György Szirb, Marianna Venekei
Hungarian National Ballet Institute students trained by: Dénes Kovács

CAST

Conductor: Gergely Kesselyák
Manon: Tatyjana Melnyik, Aliya Tanykpayeva, Maria Yakovleva
Des Grieux: Gergő Ármin Balázsi, Dmitry Timofeev, Louis Scrivener
Lescaut sergeant: Iurii Kekalo, András Rónai, Vlagyiszlav Melnyik
Lescauts mistress: Maria Beck, Jessica Carulla Leon, Kristina Starostina
Monsieur G. M.: Boris Zhurilov, Maxim Kovtun, Mikalai Radziush
Madame: Katerina Tarasova, Aglaja Sawatzki, Ludmilla Taran
Gaoler: Taran Dumitru, Nathaniel Lillington, Josué Moreno Lagarda
Beggar chief: Motomi Kiyota, Yago Guerra, Vince Topolánszky, Yago Guerra, Mattheus Bäckström
Courtesans: Claudia García Carriera, Elena Sharipova, Miyu Takamori, Adrienn Pap, Yuki Wakabayashi, Nutsa Chekurashvili
Beggars: Riku Yamamoto, Dmitry Zhukov, Francesco Sardella, Timofiy Bykovets, Kamill Kökény-Hámori
Gentlemen: Alberto Ortega de Pablos, Mattheus Bäckström, Carlos Taravillo Mahillo, Taran Dumitru, Christian Mathot, Viachaslau Hnedchyk, Gaetano Cottonaro, Daniyar Zhumatayev, Valerio Palumbo