THE ROLE: LESCAUT

Valentino Zucchetti, first soloist with the Royal Ballet, on the manipulative, ruthless and surprisingly complex brother at the heart of Manon.

Of all the male characters in ballet, Lescaut has always been the one I find most fascinating. He is manipulative and opportunistic, sometimes brutal, yet never entirely easy to dismiss. He can be charming one moment and disturbing the next; a gambler, a drunkard, a social climber, and, ultimately, a brother who is capable of a kind of genuine affection for Manon, although even that affection is shaped by the values and social conventions of his time. That ambiguity is at the heart of his appeal. Lescaut sets much of Manon’s tragedy in motion, while his own ambitions and compromises reveal the darker world surrounding her.

I speak to Royal Ballet first soloist Valentino Zucchetti about the role less than two months before his farewell to the company.