The ballet adaptation of Abbé Prévost’s novel L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut shows Sir Kenneth MacMillan at his very finest, attesting as it does to his profound insight into human psychology, choreographic craft and narrative skill. The artist admirably expresses the power of fateful love in the central characters’ impassioned duets.

L'Histoire de Manon

State Opera

The first has been conceived by Robert Bondara, a Polish choreographer, stage director and teacher, formerly a dancer with the Polish National Ballet and since 2018 director of the Poznan Grand Theatre Ballet.

Avant-Garde

National Theatre Prague

Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (1966) is Balanchine’s very first abstract work. The choreographer used to say that chamber music was not suitable for large-scale ballets, since chamber pieces are usually “too long, with too many repeats, and are meant for small rooms”. Back in the 1930s, Arnold Schoenberg orchestrated Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, voicing similar dissatisfaction. In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle music critic Alfred Frankenstein, he explained the reasons for having done so: “1. I like the piece. 2. It is seldom played. 3. It is always very badly played, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted once to hear everything, and this I achieved.” Balanchine opted for Schoenberg’s version. His Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is a dynamic one-act ballet for 55 dancers in four parts (in line with the four movements of Brahms’s quartet), each possessing a particular mood, style and charge.

Who cares?

John Neumeier, the legendary American choreographer who for half a century helmed the Hamburg Ballett, based his Liliom on Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 eponymous play. He was the first to have created a dance adaptation of the work, depicting a tragic love story, set in the milieu of US fairs in the 1930s.

Liliom

The renowned Italian choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti created Scheherazade for the Czech National Ballet, in tandem with Carlo Cerri, his long-term collaborator. Based on the famous Middle Eastern story, the full-length ballet features a mesmerising, diverse dance idiom, and overwhelming visual dimensions. Mauro Bigonzetti, long-standing artistic director of the Aterballetto, Reggio Emilia, is a great modern dance innovator, one of the world’s most feted ballet creators and a sensitive storyteller. Blending contemporary and classical elements, he reveals and depicts the beauty of the human body almost like a sculptor, yet his works are far from academic. Bigonzetti has previously worked with the Czech National Ballet on three occasions. In 2016, Prague staged to great acclaim his Vertigo; in 2019, the Estates Theatre hosted the world premiere of Kafka: The Trial; and in the 2023/24 season, the State Opera presented his choreography to Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden within the unique project Holo Harmonies.

Danilo Lo Monaco

Events

Upcoming events

Sep 2 - Dec 5, 2026

L'Histoire de Manon · Národní divadlo

Sep 11 - Oct 11, 2026

Avant-Garde · Národní divadlo

Oct 27 - Nov 7, 2026

Who cares? · Národní divadlo

Mar 20 - May 5, 2027

Liliom · Národní divadlo

Apr 17, 2027

Scheherazade · Národní divadlo

Future and recently performed repertoire

King's Faithfuls in Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov

Národní divadlo

King Shahriyar in Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov

Národní divadlo

Des Grieux in L'Histoire de Manon by Massenet

Národní divadlo

About

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