10-24 Oct 2005. In Histoire de Manon, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Massenet, with Alessandra Ferri/Silvie Guillem and Roberto Bolle/Massimo Murru. The three-act ballet, first staged in 1974, roughly follows the plot of the Abb Prvosts Histoire du Chavalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. According to dance critic Arlene Croce, "at its worst its like a bad opera. The chorus jumps into its dance, the stars jump into their climactic point-of-death duet. Irrelevant characters, inexplicably lingering on from previous drafts of the libretto, get their big chance minutes before the curtain falls. At its best, with its rich collection of variations and group dances, the ballet really does seem to be giving us, in dance terms, some of the mood and tension of Abb Prvosts story about the luxury prostitute who loved a poor man. Of that love itself, and of its consequences for Des Grieux, the ballet has virtually nothing to say." However the brilliant cast has plenty of chances to show off technical virtuosities with the big acrobatic pas de deux that brings the ballet to a close.