The tale of a girl who chooses financial stability with an old goat over penniless passion with a young poet is just as relevant now as it was when the Abbé Prevost wrote the source novel in 1731.
While the delightful Marianela Nunez may not be a natural Manon she applies herself to the role with considerable intelligence and verve. As she is wafted to and fro like a tantalising bauble by her pimping brother Lescaut (Ricardo Cervera) she clearly enjoys her capriciousness.
The arrival of Federico Bonelli's Des Grieux is not quite the thunderbolt it might be, however. Bonelli is a precise and able dancer with a beautiful line and finish but he lacks the physical abandon that characterises MacMillan's male leads - from Romeo to Mayerling's Crown Prince Rudolf.
Hesitant in his opening solo he gained in confidence with each step. But there is a sense that both are aiming for precision more than passion. Curiously, Nunez really comes to life in the role during the extraordinary pas de trois in which she is manhandled - one might almost say abused - between Lescaut and Monsieur GM (Christopher Saunders) who can hardly control his lust.
Related articles
Yet there is much to admire in this production - notably, the Royal Opera House Orchestra's reading of Massenet's music which, just to confuse the issue, is not the same as Massenet's Manon opera. Working from his own improvements to the orchestration, conductor Martin Yates brings a vivid coherence to a score that was originally cobbled together.
The brothel scene contains some of the best work on stage here - with the company being eye-catchingly naughty in corners while Nunez disports herself in an orgy of flirting.
The gold and tobacco tones of Nicholas Georgiadis' sets embrace the company as if it were emerging from the impasto of an old painting. The twists and turns of Manon's fate are deftly handled - and the violence shocking and sudden.
Nunez is heartbreaking in the last act as she stumbles through the Louisiana swamp and the final pas de deux with Bonelli flinging her half-dead body this way and that is a perfect example of MacMillan's vertiginously tragic climax. A potent evening.