(courtesy bbc tv)

Manon

The Royal Ballet

11 October 2008 to 27 November 2008 
Main Auditorium

Generously supported by The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund, the Gerald Ronson Foundation and Susan and John Burns (Benefactors).

---

Enjoy something a bit different in this sophisticated and very adult ballet, with a score that’s as passionate as its storyline.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Background

Kenneth MacMillan’s three-act ballet Manon is not just one of the great showpieces of The Royal Ballet, for whom it was created, but also now of the classical ballet repertory worldwide. The famous story follows the young girl Manon, torn between her impetuous love for the student Des Grieux and her desire for wealth and comfort as a kept woman of a rich man.

These two central roles are showcases for the skill and dramatic power of any dancers, and this time round there will be the extra thrill of catching several debuts from up-and-coming young stars of The Royal Ballet. The stage picture brings to life the 18th century – from the bustling courtyard of an inn where the couple first meet to the louche atmosphere of a Parisian house of ‘entertainment’ and its courtesans. Expressive music drawn from Massenet has been skilfully woven into a ballet score that alternates the sensuous and the dramatic to match the adult themes of a world-class ballet.

CREDITS

Choreography
Kenneth MacMillan

Music
Jules Massenet

Orchestrated and arranged by
Leighton Lucas

Designs
Nicholas Georgiadis

Lighting
John B Read

PERFORMERS

Conductor
Martin Yates

Manon
Tamara Rojo
Laura Morera
Roberta Marquez
Leanne Benjamin
Mara Galeazzi

Des Grieux
Ivan Putrov
Edward Watson
David Makhateli
Carlos Acosta
Federico Bonelli
Johan Kobborg

Lescaut
José Martín
Brian Maloney
Ricardo Cervera
Viacheslav Samodurov
Thiago Soares

Spartacus

(a thrilling evening at the ballet courtesy bbc tv)

The Bolshoi Ballet perform their signature work Spartacus, staged in Paris in January 2008 and featuring the Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta in the title role. This epic work by Khatchaturian tells the story of the gladiator-slave who became the leader of an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

CREDITS

Spartacus

Carlos Acosta

Director

Ross MacGibbon

BROADCASTS

1. Fri 24 Apr 2009
   19:30
   BBC Four
   
   
   (review of earlier performance in London)
   
   
   
   
    

   Sarah Crompton
    08 Aug 2007

   
   

   
   

   

   Sarah Crompton reviews the Bolshoi's Spartacus at the London Coliseum

   • Big, bold and thrilling, Spartacus is the Bolshoi's signature work, but it stands or falls on the charisma of the dancer playing its doomed hero.
     

   The company hasn't had a truly memorable Spartacus since Irek Mukhamedov threw off his shackles and flew.

   Now it has. Cuban Carlos Acosta has spent a month rehearsing with the company to take on this role, an epic test of stamina in so many ways. He has performed in Moscow; now he brings his interpretation to London. And he triumphs.

   The part is built on a series of stage-splitting jumps, designed by the choreographer Yuri Grigorovich to show off the athletic power of the traditional Bolshoi leading man.

   His virile antics propel the story: a slaves' revolution is won with jetés that whir round the stage; he accepts power by bounding through the massed ranks of his supporters, pushing the sky with his twisting elevation; he encounters defeat in a last despairing sequence of abandoned leaps.

   In between, there are endless pirouettes and a lot of rousing running around - all of which Acosta carries off with skill and abandon. Arguably he might have jumped an inch higher and spun a fraction faster five years ago, but then he wouldn't have brought to the part such extraordinary drama.

   Acosta's unique skill, as his career has developed, is his ability to communicate. He comes so close to the footlights, you feel he wants to break their bounds and bring the audience on to the stage.

   And he is so expressive you believe he is speaking. When he enfolds his beloved Phrygia (Anna Antonicheva) in his tender arms, you can hear the words of love he is murmuring; when he attempts to quell an uprising in his own ranks, you know the admonitions he is using.

   It is an extraordinary gift, and it creates a deep emotion and passion that help the ballet along.

   Spartacus was made in 1968, three years after MacMillan had unveiled the psychological realism of Romeo and Juliet. Grigorovich took a different path, structuring the piece as a series of striking tableaux, linked by "monologues", solos that express character rather than thought.

   Acosta's achievement is to play a Grigorovich hero like a MacMillan one.

   On Monday night, only Maria Allash as a flashingly seductive Aegina, disdain dripping from her elegant wrists, ambition stamped over her face, came anywhere near to matching his dramatic realism.

   Alexander Volchkov plays the evil Roman general Crassus as a self-dramatising hysteric; it is a pantomime performance, but effective. Antonicheva emotes hard but lacks fluency as Phrygia.

   Around them, Khachaturian's score, vividly played by the Bolshoi Orchestra under Pavel Sorokin, swirls dramatically and Grigorovich's stage pictures unfold with vigorous glamour. It's all a bit Cecil B DeMille, but utterly engrossing.

   
   
2.