MAYERLING is Now Playing at the Opera National de Paris

First performed in 1978 by the Royal Ballet in London, Mayerling, along with L'Histoire de Manon, is Kenneth MacMillan's most famous ballet. For this vast, three‑act fresco, the British choreographer drew inspiration from an historic event: the suicide of the archduke Rodolphe, heir to the Austrian throne, in the company of his mistress, the baroness Marie Vetsera, in a hunting lodge in Mayerling, near Vienna, in 1889.

What could have driven the son of the emperor Franz‑Joseph I and Sissi to such an act? Kenneth MacMillan unpicks the social, political and personal pressures at work, alternating between the grandiose and the intimate. Underpinned by the romantic music of Franz Liszt, his highly virtuoso choreography, providing some of the most demanding male roles in the repertoire, portrays in masterly fashion the emotions of characters ill‑used by history.

Performances run from 22 October to 12 November 2022.