© John Ross RB 'Manon' reviews 'Manon' reviews Rojo in reviews Acosta in reviews recent RB reviews more Diandri reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months) Gallery of Photographs

As posted on our Postings pages...

Morera as Manon was wonderful, I went with no preconceptions about her or the role & I want to add my voice to those who admired her performance as I agree & thought she was WONDERFUL. Her dancing was strong & assured from the start & I felt that she brought a sense of recklessness & abandon to her dancing. She has a particular way of using very fast speed in her turns to create a sense of exhilaration. Naturally she's a very musical dancer & the choreography sits well on her & suits her body type. I tend to like softer dancers with flesh on them as it makes them womanly & her epaulement was especially luscious & expressive. She also projects very strongly out into the auditorium & I wonder if the 'hammy' comments indicate that she could actually work on a smaller scale & be as effective. For only a 2nd performance I thought she offered a very complete characterisation & a very enjoyable one.

What was also remarkable was the response she drew from Federico Bonelli's Des Grieux, he looked as if all his Xmas' had come at once & was very fired up. I tend to think of him as a cool classicist, but I admit I've now revised my opinion of him & he's at the top of my list of Des Grieux in terms of the diamond quality of his dancing & his ardent acting towards his Manon. I've seen him before in this part & after having looked at my past notes its clear that this pairing with Morera works well for him.

After a short break it was onto Rojo & Acosta & I personally found their performance to be very exciting. I think Rojo is a natural MacMillan dancer, but since Jonathan Cope retired it has been tricky finding a partner for her in this ballet especially. Individually her Manon is probably the most complex of the RB's various dancers in terms of presentation, motivation & dancing. She takes what MacMillan has created & adds a lot of details & moments that other dancers don't. She also has her unique motif moments such as those highly arched feet & the deep backbends, but interestingly her characterisation is not static & there are subtle differences in her approach in every run of this ballet (& I've seen her about 5-7 times). One of the aspects I always notice about her dancing is how much eye contact she maintains with her partner wherever possible.

I think this is probably MacMillan's most challenging role for Acosta as everything about Des Grieux is opposite from the Cuban's personality. In earlier runs he looked to be actively suppressing his natural personality & to fit MacMillan's vision. I thought he actually looked more comfortable & relaxed this time around in act 1 & grew in stature through act 2 & 3. I have no quibble with his partnering skills which are exemplary & allow Rojo to really let rip in the duets, but what did worry me a little was that he appears to have got suddenly heavier around the hip & thighs & there were only a few flashes of the brilliance of his technique than usual which set me to pondering how many more seasons might be ahead of him.

Laura Morera is probably the hardest working principal as after her lovely matinee Manon she was back in the evening as an equally beautiful, but feisty Mistress. Her dancing looked wonderfully fresh & sharp & I'm glad its her mistress that has been captured for DVD. LAuren Cuthbertson & Helen Crawford were excellent as the 2 courtesans & Gary Avis & Iohna Loots as the client & Tom Boy have also been recorded in this performance.

My pick & mix ideal cast would be: Rojo as Manon, Bonelli as Des Grieux, Samodurov as Lescaut & Morera as his Mistress. I'd probably opt for Gary Avis as GM, but William Tuckett also does a mean GM too & an even nastier Gaoler...