Some of the most ecstatic reviews I have ever read in the UK press:
Manon By Judith Mackrell for The Guardian
Alina Cojocaru delivered scores of extraordinary moments in her debut performance of Manon, particularly her entrance into the big party scene of act two. A tiny figure, dominated as much by the weight of her character's new finery as by the height of her companion Monsieur GM (Christopher Saunders), Cojocaru looked shockingly like a child prostitute. It was an image that flitted queasily through her performance and one that only a dancer could have sustained with such physical subtlety.
When, for instance, GM first attempts to buy Manon's favours, Cojocaru's limbs looks so girlish that his caresses almost leave a mark. When he sits her on his knee, she is hypnotised by his power yet squirms like an uncomfortable child to evade his pawing grasp. She thrills to GM's presents, and to the discovery of her erotic power over him, but seems like an innocent who has been duped into complicity.
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Manon By Debra Craine for The Times
KENNETH MACMILLAN’S Manon is one of the most frequently performed ballets in the Covent Garden repertoire. With good reason. There are few roles as meaty as Manon and Des Grieux, the ill-fated Parisian lovers who come to a sticky end in the swamps of Louisiana. And there can be few interpretations as convincing as those we saw at the Royal Opera House on Monday night, when Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg made their debuts as Manon and Des Grieux.
Cojocaru and Kobborg are undoubtedly the stage pairing du jour at the Royal Ballet. They seem to understand one another instinctively; their styles (he’s Danish, she’s Romanian) mesh beautifully; and they take chances with their dancing that others can’t. Theirs is a tremendously exciting partnership, and I’ve never seen it to better effect than here in the heartstopping duets of Manon.
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A debauched and detailed gem Luke Jennings for The Daily Telegraph reviews Manon performed by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.
In the three decades since Kenneth MacMillan choreographed Manon, the title role has become one of the great ballerina challenges. Quite apart from the role's technical demands, the character of Manon Lescaut is studded with contradictions: she is at once an innocent and a femme fatale, an impulsive child and a calculating, mercenary bitch.
In her first performance in the role, Alina Cojocaru presents Manon as a glittering but feckless adolescent. When she first sees Des Grieux (Johan Kobborg), the student who is to be her lover, her glance is coolly assessing. Where, she seems to say, is the profit in this? It is not long, though, before a reckless hunger for sensation sees her in his arms. And so begins the inevitable tragedy, with Manon led from decision to decision - and finally to her death - by lethal whimsy.
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