FOR RELEASE ON CONTACT: SHAUNA TYSOR
AUGUST 11, 2009 KIM ESPINOSA
713 535 3226
email us
Houston Ballet Launches 40th Season
with the Revival of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Epic Love Story Manon
From September 10 - 20, 2009, Houston Ballet launches its 40th season with a revival of the epic love story Manon, choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and featuring scenery and costumes by the acclaimed British designer Peter Farmer.
Launching Houston Ballet's 40th anniversary season with Manon is an acknowledgment of the key role that Sir Kenneth played in Houston Ballet's history, and his influence on Houston Ballet's repertoire during his time as the company's artistic associate from 1989 until his untimely death in 1992. During this period, Houston Ballet took five of his works into its repertoire: the one-act ballets Song of the Earth, Gloria, Elite Syncopations, and Solitaire; and the full-length, Manon,.
Houston Ballet has become the leading exponent of MacMillan's works in America. Sir Kenneth's widow, Lady MacMillan, who oversees the staging of MacMillan's work throughout the world, has served as a member of the national committee of the board of Houston Ballet Foundation since the mid 1990s.
Based on the famous eighteenth century French novel Manon Lescaut (1731) by Abbé Prévost, the ballet depicts the romantic adventures of the irresistibly beautiful Manon and her one true love, the impoverished student Des Grieux, from the demi monde of Paris to the bayous of Louisiana. Sir Kenneth has created a brilliant dance drama that explores the relationship between love, sex, and the corrupting power of money. The passion and danger of Manon's central pas de deux have proven irresistible to audiences around the world, and have made it one of the most popular full-length ballets of the second half of the twentieth century.
MacMillan commented that he created Manon because "The characters fascinate me. You have a sixteen-year-old heroine who is beautiful and totally amoral, and a hero who is corrupted by her and becomes a cheat, a liar, and a murderer. Not exactly your conventional ballet plot, is it?"
"Dancing the role of Manon has become a rite of passage for dancers, like performing the title role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. There are so many wonderful roles to dance in the work and it showcases how MacMillan kept classical ballet alive, by taking it in a new direction," says Mr. Welch, who himself performed the leading male role of Des Grieux in Manon while a young dancer with The Australian Ballet in the early 1990s.
Hailed by The New York Times as "one of the century's great choreographers" (September 12, 1993), Kenneth MacMillan was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1929. His strength of purpose can be traced back to the very beginning of his career when he read an advertisement announcing that scholarships for boys were available at the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet School, where he completed his dance training and in 1946 became a founding member of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, a new company formed by Ninette de Valois. In 1966, MacMillan received an invitation to direct the ballet company at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin. Encouraged to accept by Dame Ninette, he took over the company and staged his own productions of The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. He also created the one-act ballet Anastasia which was subsequently to become the third act of his full-length Anastasia.
Sir Kenneth had proved himself as the natural successor to Sir Frederick Ashton as director of The Royal Ballet, a post he assumed (at first in association with John Field) at the beginning of the 1970-1971 season and held until 1977, when he was appointed the company's resident choreographer. He received his knighthood in 1993.
MacMillan, along with Ashton, has been hailed as one of the greatest choreographers of full-length ballets of the 20th century. Mary Clarke, editor of The Dancing Times of London commented, "It is no exaggeration to say that Kenneth MacMillan, through his choreography and through his choice of subject matter, pushed back the frontiers of ballet. Other choreographers before him explored human relationships but none ventured so bravely and so widely into complex and often tragic situations, with some characters culled from literature, some from his own imagination and some from real life."
MacMillan created Manon in 1974 for England's The Royal Ballet. Since its premiere, Manon has received critical acclaim in performances by Paris Opera Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, The Australian Ballet, English National Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada. Houston Ballet first performed Manon in 1994, and revived the work in 1998 and in 2002. Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre are the only American companies that perform the work.
 |
