"Manon"
The Royal Ballet
Opera House
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
June 23, 2009
by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2009 by Alexandra Tomalonis
If the Royal Ballet has a signature work these days, it surely must be "Manon," MacMillan's 18th century retelling of the greedy courtesan who must choose between love and riches, and makes all the right choices at the wrong times. The staging is by the company's director, Monica Mason, and exhibits an admirable attention to detail. The company obviously still believes in the ballet, which is beloved by many fans. I'm one of those who thinks, at best, it would be a good one-act ballet. It has some very nice pas de deux and a lot of filler, but the opening cast -- Tamara Rojo as Manon and Carlos Acosta as Des Grieux, the young student who loves her -- danced with such passion and commitment that they transcended the filler.
Rojo is in her mid-thirties now, a former medal winner from Spain who has been a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet for most of her career. Her dancing in "Manon" was both strong and silken. As a dance actress, she portrayed Manon's conflicting emotions, those choices (loving Des Grieux, wanting to please her brother and her own lust for pretty dresses and jewels, but then there's Des Grieux....) with not only clarity, but sweetness. She made what can be a cardboard Bad Girl character into a person. Acosta is one of the great dancers of our time, most known for his superb technique and heroic stage presence. He could pass for a professional boxer, and is a bit too old to be convincing as a naive young student, and so the fluid lyricism with which he danced his solos was a remarkable achievement. Des Grieux was made on Anthony Dowell, and few can match Dowell's mastery of control and liquid line, but Acosta was a master of legato dancing here and the contrast between the heroic body and lyrical dancing became a metaphor for the passions surging in his heart.
"Manon" is famous for its pas de deux -- they're difficult, so difficult that they were frightening when the ballet was new, and can be very beautiful if you're not worried about how the dancers will handle them. No worries here. Both Rojo and Acosta are so strong that the duets flowed like cream; their musicality was a plus.
Manon's pimp and brother, Lescaut, is supposed to be a contrast to Des Grieux -- a swaggering, nasty bad guy (although he should give some hint as why Manon still loves him and mourns him when he dies). Jose Martin is so slight that he is surely a contrast to Acosta, but not powerful enough to be a convincing foe. Laura Morera made little of the role of Lescaut's Mistress, Mason's own part. Christopher Saunders was a strong, masculine Monsieur G.M. -- just the type of nobleman who would relish having the most beautiful woman in town as a courtesan.
'Manon" is often touted as "modern" ballet, one that's REAL, but I've never understood that. In the second act's brothel scene, the courtesans, harlots, strumpets and whores look like naughty girls in costume at a pajama party (that's not intended as a criticism of the dancers, whom, I'm sure, are doing exactly what they've been instructed to do). They pout and flounce and swish their skirts, but no self-respecting courtesan would act that way outside of a theater. And then there's the famous, or infamous, scene where the Gaoler suggests he's forcing Manon to perform fellatio. It's not "real" -- it can't be. He's fully clothed. What's the point, except to make parents regret having brought small children (and there were a lot of small children in Thursday night's audience)? And the last act, when the deportees, all dressed identically, like any corps de ballet (in gray rags and cropped wigs that manage to be pretty) are so weak they fall to the ground -- but rise again to dance their suffering -- is as unrealistic as the sylphs, swans or wilis.
And then one starts to ask questions. Why does Manon starve to death, when Des Grieux, who's made the same horrific ocean crossing, looks and dances as though he's eating three steaks a day? Can't he share? And why can he just walk into the Gaoler's office to chat? If security is that loose, they could all run away. In the last scene, Manon doesn't have the strength to dance another step, yet can manage one more pas de deux, much the same way a very healthy soprano in a 19th century opera rises from her death bed to sing one last aria before expiring. All of these are perfectly acceptable theatrical conventions, but they're not realistic. "Manon" remains a good performance vehicle for stars, and its success is more dependent than most ballets on who's dancing. (The company showed five casts in "Manon" here; nearly every principal was on view. Other casts were: Alina Cojocaru/Johan Kobborg/Ricardo Cervera/Laura Morera; Roberta Marquez/David Makhateli/Brian Maloney/HelenCrawford; Leanne Benjamin/Kobborg/Cervera/Morera; Mara Baleazzi/Edward Watson/Thiago Soares/Crawford.)
Photos of Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta in The Royal Ballet's "Manon" by Bill Cooper.
