Kenneth MacMillan's 1974 ballet Manon takes us into the seedy underworld of 18th-century Paris, where money rules and even love has a price. Manon is torn between her loyal, devoted lover Des Grieux, who offers an honourable life, and the glittering rewards of Parisian high society.
Adapted from Abbé Prévost's novel and set to Jules Massenet's score, with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, the production is a signature work of The Royal Ballet. It looks unflinchingly at moral decline and the inner struggle for survival at the heart of the story.
