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I notice that this year the credits for the harlots and the skivvies are missing from the cast sheets. The skivvies perhaps aren't such a problem, but given that there are two girls, namely the "boy" and the extra, uncredited (I've complained about that in previous years), courtesan, who do quite a bit of extra dancing, I do think they should be credited ...

Looking back at the Penney/Dowell DVD and my 1991 programme, I notice that the deported harlots in Act III used to wear torn and shabby velvety dresses, rather than the muddy shifts they now wear. Did anyone notice when this changed?

Another change that I find rather out of character is that several Des Grieux in the first scene now deliberately stand behind Manon and wait for her to bump into them, rather than have it happen fairly much by accident. It strikes me as a little too devious on his behalf (not to mention rather hackneyed in ballet terms - we see it so often), and I note that Dowell didn't do it that way. In fact, it seems to be that the Des Grieux are rather more aware of Manon's presence from early on than they used to be: I seem to remember that they used to have their heads buried in their books far more.

Finally, what has happened to "the longest kiss in ballet" (Act I, Scene 2)? It seems to me to have got a lot shorter - I was starting to wonder whether the one in "Ondine" was actually longer ...