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On Thursday evening we saw Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman in the leading roles. Cavallo played Manon as a more knowing, experienced girl and Bowman was very much the naïve poet. The first pdd seemed a little tentative but as the performance went on they got better and better and the final pdd in the swamps was both breath-taking and heart-wrenching. Gitte Lindstrom was excellent as Lescaut’s mistress and Dawid Kupinski was a solemn but very drunk Lescaut. Jette Buchwald made much of the role of Madame and was very drunk indeed in the brothel scene. At the end of the performance when the curtain rose with just Manon and Des Grieux on stage, the two dancers were still gripped in the emotion of the final scene and were clinging together – it was a very moving curtain call.

Although the familiar Macmillan choreography, the set and costumes are not those we know and love. For the most part the palette is black, white and shades of grey. The men’s costumes are superb; I preferred the gaoler’s blue and black uniform to the one we are used to. I was not so keen on the girl’s costumes – the ones in the brothel were particularly garish. The set was quite plain and was not as busy as the RB one. There were no mangrove roots hanging down in the final scenes, although I have got to say that I preferred this as it allowed you a clearer view of Manon’s memories and did not distract from the final, wonderful pdd. The orchestra, under the baton of Graham Bond, sounded wonderful.

On Friday evening we saw Rose Gad and Mads Blangstrup. Dawid Kupinski was again Lescaut, with Lesley Culver as his mistress. Gad again played Manon as an “experienced” girl. In the “pass the parcel” section of the brothel scene, she was really flirting with the gentlemen. Blangstrup, who is such a beautiful dancer, was a quieter, more controlled Des Grieux. Kupinski and Culver really let their hair down in the brothel scene and their drunken pdd was hilarious, in part because Kupinski has such a solemn demeanour.

One of the most noticeable features of the company’s dancing is the lovely soft leaps of all the men – you could not hear them landing at all. The “three gentlemen” on both evenings were a joy to behold.

I had only seen this wonderful company performing Bournonville before and it was great to see them performing this work so well.

Another reason for seeing Manon in Copenhagen was that it cost me less than an equivalent trip to London would have done!