Modern ballet gets a racy twist with colorful yet tragic love story of Manon

By Theresa Boyer     9/17/09 7:00pm

The themes of love, money and violence may be most commonly associated with Hollywood action films, but there is no rule against their driving the plot of a ballet production.The Houston Ballet opened its 40th season last Thursday with Sir Kenneth MacMillan's modern ballet Manon, demonstrating the culmination of years of growth and development as both a company and artistic community. Based on Abbé Prévost's 18th-century novel Manon Lescaut, the ballet traces the tragic fall of a young femme fatale and her lover, providing a rich plot line in a performance vibrant with complex choreography, fabulous costumes and demanding acting.

Manon begins in the inn of a small provincial town on the outskirts of Paris, where the young and striking Manon arrives on her way to enter a convent. Her beauty immediately attracts the attention of penniless student Des Grieux and rich aristocrat Monsieur G.M.

Thus, the stage is set for a love triangle that pits Manon against the trappings of prosperity and the desire to follow her own heart.

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From the resplendent demimonde period of Paris to the backwoods bayous of Louisiana, Manon is revealed as an ambiguous heroine. She is clearly immature, and her own failings lead not only to the unraveling of her own life but also to the detriment of the people she cares about the most.

But she's not simply immature - she's also conniving. Manon eggs on Des Grieux, her honorable young lover, to steal and cheat money from Monsieur G.M. while simultaneously encouraging the advances of the latter. Yet the forces of the rich and powerful in Régence-era Paris act too quickly and cunningly for Manon's intellect, eventually leading to her arrest as a prostitute and exile to a remote French penal colony in New Orleans.

While superficial logic would encourage the viewer to dismiss Manon as a wicked, fickle woman caught up in her desire for fortune, MacMillan uses his excellent skills as a choreographer to give the play's namesake a chance for redemption. Principal Amy Fote dances the title role, a part that demands tremendous depth and maturity, and succeeds in making the character sympathetic.

The great tour de force of the performance lies in the two pas de deux of Act I and Act II. Despite her ill intentions, Manon gracefully and poignantly displays her actual feelings for Des Grieux through a series of intimate dances in his lodgings. The lovers express their true emotions for one another with the aid of lyrical music and whimsical, romantic arabesques and lifts.

Lavish costumes and elaborate scenery enrich the theatricality of the performance and remind the audience of the Houston Ballet's impressive breadth. From the rags of the peasants to the bejeweled gowns of the elite, every minute detail of the costumes has been authenticated and painstakingly carried out. Wigs, hats, jewelry and other accessories also showcase the meticulous attention to detail that shapes the production. Additionally, the many scenes and settings of the ballet, which range from an inn in Paris to the remote swamps of the New World, are enhanced through realistic backdrops, props and lighting.

At the start of the ballet, the viewer is automatically reminded of the opening scenes of great Romantic ballets such as Giselle or Swan Lake. These ballets often find their roots in small, rural towns and end in the dark forests of mysterious places. However, Manon provides the audience with a meatier tale and a more complicated heroine.

The elements of wealth, sex and death also combine to lift Manon out of the realm of classical ballet to an edgier and more modern sensibility. Manon's light and airy steps may lead some viewers to lament her ultimately tragic demise, but worry not - MacMillan clearly means for his title character to get her comeuppance in the end.

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