OVERVIEW
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Choreographer: Sir Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Jules Massenet, orchestrated by Martin Yates
Created during Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s tenure as The Royal Ballet’s Artistic Director, this production reflects a rich artistic legacy. An intense tale of passion, desire, and devastating consequence, Manon remains one of the greatest drama ballets of all time. Set to a masterful arrangement of music by Jules Massenet, the story follows the captivating Manon and her devoted Des Grieux as they are drawn into a world of luxury, temptation, and heartbreak.
*This production includes sensitive topics and adult themes.
This production contains the use of theatrical firearms.
Production Underwriting by Sidney Faust
SYNOPSIS
MAIN CHARACTERS
Manon, Des Grieux, Monsieur G.M., Lescaut, Lescaut’s Mistress
*CONTAINS STORY SPOILERS
ACT I
Scene One: The courtyard of an inn near Paris.
The courtyard at the inn is frequented by actresses, gentlemen and the demi-monde from Paris. Among them are Des Grieux (a young student), the wealthy Monsieur G.M. and Lescaut, who is there to meet his sister Manon on her way to enter a convent. A coach arrives bringing Manon and an Old Gentleman, who has been very much attracted by her. Lescaut notices this and takes the Old Gentleman into the inn to make an arrangement with him over Manon. Manon remains outside and meets Des Grieux. They fall in love and decide to escape Paris with the help of the money that she has stolen from the Old Gentleman. Lescaut and the Old Gentleman come out of the inn, having made a bargain, and to their dismay see that Manon has disappeared. Monsieur G.M. tells Lescaut that he too is interested in Manon and because of Monsieur G.M.’s wealth Lescaut promises to find Manon and persuade her to accept Monsieur G.M.
Scene Two: Des Grieux’s lodgings in Paris
Des Grieux is writing a letter to his father, but Manon interrupts by declaring her love for him. Des Grieux goes to mail the letter and in his absence Lescaut arrives with Monsieur G.M. Manon yields to Monsieur G.M.’s advances. When Des Grieux returns, Lescaut persuades him that there will be great wealth for all of them if he, Des Grieux, will sanction the liaison between Manon and Monsieur G.M.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
Scene One: A party at the Madame’s hotel
Manon arrives at the party given by Monsieur G.M. and is clearly torn between the wealth of her companion and her love for Des Grieux, who is also there with Lescaut. Des Grieux tries to persuade Manon to leave with him but she tells him that the time is not right and only will be when he takes more of Monsieur G.M.’s money at cards. Des Grieux is caught cheating and he and Manon rush away.
Scene Two: Des Grieux’s lodgings
Manon and Des Grieux once again declare their love for one another but Monsieur G.M. arrives with the police and Manon is arrested as a prostitute. In the ensuing struggle Lescaut is killed.
INTERMISSION
ACT III
Scene One: The port
The Jailer of the Penal Colony awaits the arrival of the convicts from France. Manon has been deported to America as a prostitute and Des Grieux has followed her there by pretending to be her husband. The Jailer now turns his interest toward Manon.
Scene Two: The Jailer’s room
The Jailer has arrested Manon but offers her rewards in the hope that she will desert Des Grieux and live with him. Des Grieux breaks in and kills the Jailer.
Scene Three: The swamp
Manon and Des Grieux have escaped into the swamp of Louisiana. All her former ambitions of wealth and splendor have been renounced for her love of Des Grieux. While eluding their pursuers Manon collapses and dies in Des Grieux’s arms.
ARTISTS
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (1929-1992)
CHOREOGRAPHER, MANON
Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the century’s great choreographers” (September 12, 1993). Sir Kenneth MacMillan was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1929 and received his dance training at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, later The Royal Ballet, a new company formed by Dame Ninette de Valois. In 1953, Sir Kenneth’s first ballet, Somnambulism, was the hit of the evening, and from then on, he pursued a celebrated choreographic career. From 1954 to 1965, he created over ten works for the Sadler’s Wells Company, including The Burrow (1958), Romeo and Juliet (1964), and Song of the Earth (1965). In 1966, Sir Kenneth received an invitation to direct the Berlin Ballet at Deutsche Oper in West Berlin. He took the company over and staged his own productions of The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Anastasia. Emerging as the natural successor to The Royal Ballet Director Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth assumed the directorship at the beginning of the 1970-1971 season. He continued to choreograph and in 1974 created both Manon and Elite Syncopations, as well as Requiem (1976), and My Brother, My Sisters (1978), for Stuttgart Ballet. Mayerling, which premiered at Covent Garden in 1978, had a triumphant American premiere in Los Angeles that same year, and was the subject of a London Weekend Television film that won the 1978 music category of the prestigious Prix Italia-the first ballet to do so. More works include La Fin du Jour (1979), Gloria (1980), Isadora (1981), Wild Boy for American Ballet Theatre (1981), Quartet (1982), Orpheus (1982), Valley of Shadows (1983) for The Royal Ballet. Sir Kenneth received his knighthood in 1983. He served as Houston Ballet’s artistic associate from 1989 until his death in 1992. He is survived by his wife Deborah and daughter Charlotte. Houston Ballet has six works by Sir Kenneth in its repertoire: Song of the Earth, Gloria, Elite Syncopations, Solitaire, Manon and Mayerling.
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912)
COMPOSER, MANON
Orchestrated and Arranged by Martin Yates.
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly became best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death forty-five years later he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like many prominent French composers of the period, Massenet became a professor at the Conservatoire. He taught composition there from 1878 until 1896, when he resigned after the death of the director, Ambroise Thomas. Among his students were Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Pierné.
HISTORY
MANON REPERTOIRE HISTORY
This is Houston Ballet’s sixth time performing Manon as part of its main season. Other ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan in Houston Ballet’s repertoire include Song of the Earth, Gloria, Solitaire, Mayerling, and Elite Syncopations. MacMillan was preparing to bring Manon to Houston Ballet when he died in 1992. It premiered posthumously in 1994.
MANON PRODUCTION DETAILS
CHOREOGRAPHER: Sir Kenneth MacMillan (1929-1992) based on the novel Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost (1697-1763)
GENRE: Classical Ballet
RUN TIME: Ballet in 3 Acts; approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes with a 20-minute and a 18-minute intermission.
LOCATION: Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas
COMPOSER: Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Orchestrated and Arranged by Martin Yates
WORLD PREMIERE DATE: March 7, 1974 by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, England.
HOUSTON BALLET PREMIERE DATE: May 19, 1994 in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas.
COSTUME & SCENIC DESIGN: Peter Farmer (1936-2017)
LIGHTING DESIGN: Christine Giannelli
STAGERS (2026): Robert Tewsley and Susan Jones
BALLET MASTERS (2026): Ian Casady, Amy Fote, Hayden Stark, Steven Woodgate
HOUSTON BALLET ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR (2016): Simon Thew
HOUSTON BALLET STAGE MANAGER (2026): Anna-Marie Monzon
SPECIAL PROGRAM NOTES (2026): Scenery painted by Michael Hagen, Inc.
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