The famous whole evening ballet Manon by the choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan, to music by Jules Massanet which is being performed around in the world with the leading balletcompanies, such as La Scala,  Royal Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, Bayerisches Staatsballet, The Royal Danish Ballet,  Manon was one of the performances presented by the Estonian National Ballet during their successfully visiting  to the Lithuanian National Ballet and Opera House in Vilnius, lately
.

It is  acompliment to a company when Lady Deborah MacMillan is giving permission to let them perform her late husbands famous work. And the Estonian production, staged by Karl Burnett has become a succes.

Many outstanding soloists in leading and smaller roles
. A very good corps des ballet who shows how high the quality of the Estonian National Ballet is with the management of balletchief  Toomas Edur. Furthermore it was a pleasure to note the pleasant atmosphaere on stage, – that the audience could feel.

It starts In eighteenth century Paris, Lescaut, Anatoli Arkhangelski, Manon’s corrupt brother, is outside a seedy inn, in a frozen scene of beggars, courtesans and wealthy aristocrats.

Set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century, the story follows the hero le Chevalier Des Grieux and his lover Manon Lescaut. Des Grieux comes from a noble and landed family, but forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of his father by running away with Manon. In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while Des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon’s taste for luxury. He scrounges together money by borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friends and from cheating gamblers
. On several occasions, Des Grieux’s wealth evaporates (by theft, in a house fire, etc.), prompting Manon to leave him for a richer man because she cannot stand the thought of living in penury.

Alena Shkatula was brilliant in the titelrole, Manon, where she showed all the details that the role demands, from innocense in the very beginning, pride and joy at having succeeded to find happiness with a rich man, disruptive, grief and redemption after having felt abused, betrayed and exiled, but she continued to be together with her ​​beloved Des Grieux, performed by Maksim Chukaryov
. All these sides of the history Shkatula performed and danced splendid, with very many beautiful details.

Anatoli Arkhangelski was a strong and elegant brother, Lescaut, who wanted all the best for his sister, but in addition took a chance on a little extra income for him self, as long as his sister was the winner. Masculin powerful dancing. Funny, when he was playing drunk and dancing at the bal together with his girlfriend, Luana Georg, who danced briliantly and virtuose.

Maksim Chukaryov in the role as Des Grieux, the boy friend of Manon, is a very beautiful and handsome young man, and as that perfect in the role as Des Grieux. Every one in the audience understand why Manon could fall in love with this young guy. He is strong, and in the the pas de deux parts it was a pleasure to enjoye their strong cooperation and all the “easy look a like” lift he did with Manon. However, unfortunately, in his solo parts it didn´t work so well. Part after part in the solos was ok, but it was not fluiding, his solos was not hanging together. For me a demanding solo, shall start in the one end and end when it is ending. there must be a fluiding line through all of it. But mr. Chukaryouv splitted it all up in the one little part after the other, and when the beautiful music was hanging together, his solos was not. These soloparts was not successful. But I do see this talented dancer´s great potential, only that he need to relax and that he, him self, want to let it all hang together. It can come to be successful for him in some years, if he continues to work seriouse with it. – I seriously dont hope I am  mistaken?

In other roles, as The rich man, mr G.M. we enjoyed Vitali Nikolajev, As the “Madame” a beautiful Kaja Kreitzberg. As the commander of the Beggars we enjoyed Jonathan Hanks in a beautiful and wellformed solo.   Eva Andre was the first of the 5 courtesans.  closely followed by Nadezda Antipenko, Heidi Kopti, Marika Muiste, Olga Rjabikova.

In the staging the stage director on behalf of MacMillan is Karl Burnett, who knows the work inside out, and can give it all the right feelings and moods, which there are many of in Manon. The scenography, sets and beautiful and well functioning costumes are by the Mia Stensgaard from the Royal Danish Ballet, I especially likes that she is good in all the shades of carricatures and types on the stage, from the rich, – normal to the beggars and the prostitutes in the very sad ending. The performance is followed well up by the  lightdesign by David Richardson from the English National Ballet.

Risto Joost conducted the Estonian National Opera and Ballet Orchestra in the beautiful music by Jules Massenet, it was floating very well. The good arrangement of the music for Manon  is by Martin Yates. Joost has a good feeling for the dancers need for the right tempi, and a good eye up to the dancers for how it is going. Therefore the dancers also like to cooperate with Risto Joost. The orchestra is full of great musicians, and with a very good sound in the strings, in addition the other groups, wooden players and horns of all types. Furtherone the percussion worked very well. I was a great pleasure to enjoy, when the orchestra is doing a good home work during the rehearsals, and even one by one before the rehersals and before coming to the performances. At Manon we enjoyed Andrus Haav, violin, Kristjan Saar, cello in different soloparts.

PROGRAM: “I would like to mention the beautiful  programme book following this Estonian production of Manon, full of first class large photos, good history in Estonian, with synnopsis in English, Russian and  Estonian. Compiler is Liina Viru. Designer: Stella Tillo, editor of the progamme: Kristina Körver. But in this case, what lifts it up extraordinary are the most wonderful photos by Harri Rospu. Without these phots the programme has not been such a beautiful edition”.

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MANON – L’histoire de Manon is a ballet comprising the music of Jules Massenet, originally arranged and partially orchestrated by British composer Leighton Lucas, re-orchestrated entirely by conductor Martin Yates. The piece was first presented by The Royal Ballet in London in 1974, with choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and it continues to be recognised internationally as the company’s, The Royal Ballet, signature ballet.

Ironically, the ballet contains none of the music from Massenet’s opera Manon, with which it shares an almost identical story. The music compiled by Lucas is drawn from other works by Massenet, including thirteen operas and two oratorios as well as his orchestral suites, various songs and piano works. The ballet is a mainstay of the modern repertoire, generally referred to as simply Manon
.

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Manon Lescaut (L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut) is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité (Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality). It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication. Despite this it became very popular and pirated editions were widely distributed. In a subsequent 1753 edition, the Abbé Prévost toned down some scandalous details and injected more moralizing disclaimers.

The story has influenced a number of ballets and operas, such as:

• Manon Lescaut (1856) an opera by French composer Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
• Manon (1884) an opera by French composer Jules Massanet
• Manon Lescaut (1893) an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini
• Boulevard Solitude “Lyrisches Drama” (lyric drama) or opera by German composer Hans Werner Henze
• L´histoire de Manon, (1974) a ballet choreography by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, with music by Jules Massanet
• Manon Lescaut, (1830) a ballet by Jean-Pierre Aume

Furthermore, some films and TV series have been based on the novel.