Dorothée Gilbert danced her farewell at the Palais Garnier on October 15, in MacMillan’s L’Histoire de Manon. Her Des Grieux was Hugo Marchand, her partner of twelve years; they met rehearsing this ballet. The applause lasted thirty-five minutes.
I’ve written about Manon before, after seeing the Australian Ballet in Sydney. This time, let’s talk about the music, and why Manon might be so popular for farewell performances.
Ballet has more good music than it gets credit for. Manon’s score isn’t Massenet’s Manon. MacMillan used neither that opera nor Puccini’s. Leighton Lucas assembled the score from the rest of Massenet: other operas, oratorios, songs. It works better than a patchwork should. I’d put it in tier one. Tier zero is Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, who wrote ballet as symphonists. Tier one is well-orchestrated scores that serve the stage: Manon, Giselle, a few others.
Why do ballerinas leave with Manon? Aurélie Dupont did too, in 2015, with Roberto Bolle.
A caveat: in Paris, dancers don’t choose when. They are close to civil servants, and they retire at 42 under a pension scheme dating from Louis XIV in 1698. In 2019 the corps defended it by dancing Swan Lake on the steps of Garnier. Gilbert stayed until 43. The date is fixed, so the only choice is the ballet, and there are years to make it.
My guess: most big roles test youth. The Rose Adagio and the 32 fouettés are easier at 25 than at 40. Manon has neither. What it needs is partnering, which takes years, and acting, since she goes from sixteen to dead in three acts. It’s a role dancers get better at with age.
It also ends on a death. The final pas de deux leaves her exhausted, she dies in Des Grieux’s arms, and the curtain comes down. Then the bows start.