Christine Temin on The Royal Ballet

Carlos Acosta as Des Grieux and Tamara Rojo as Manon

The Royal Ballet returns to Boston June 15-17 for four performances of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon. The Celebrity Series has commissioned an article on The Royal Ballet and Manon from Christine Temin, a Boston-based writer, who from 1978-2005 was dance critic for The Boston Globe. The article outlines the origins of Manon and the history and current state of The Royal Ballet and features something of a portrait of the director of The Royal Ballet, Monica Mason:

"For all her awareness of the need to keep adding to the repertory, Mason epitomizes what Americans adore about the Royal, the same qualities we love about Britain itself: continuity, tradition, valor, a tendency not to take things too seriously – except when things are serious, when Brits are at their best. Royal directors have tended to have something of Winston Churchill about them, only; of course, they’ve all been from the dance world, hence somewhat trimmer than the man who saw Britain through the Blitz."

First Soloist Sarah Lamb, formerly of Boston Ballet, also talked with Christine:

"On the matter of applause, Lamb has found British audiences rather reticent. "I’ve never seen the audience here stand up," she says. "There’s this sense of, 'Don’t you remember when Margot did that role?'" she says in a perfect send-up of the accent of an upper class British woman. On the other hand, she says, on a tour of the Far East last year, Japanese audiences were so enthusiastic "They’d queue up outside the stage door to give Sylvie Guillem [the Royal’s Parisian-born principal guest artist] Louis Vuitton handbags."

Temin covers a lot of ground in the article, from Monica Mason's history with the company (which has included, among other things, playing the role of the Mistress in the 1974 premiere of Manon); to fundraising in Britain; the Royal Ballet's wigs; diversity in the company; and the courageous tale of the company's continued performing throughout the London Blitz of World War II.

Read Christine Temin's article, The Royal Ballet and Manon.

Read a synopsis of Manon (the ballet not the opera)