GIZELLE

It was in 1841 that the world first saw Adolphe Adam’s legendary Giselle, rightly celebrated both as the best nineteenth century ballet score and as the excellent example of musical dramaturgy.

For more than 150 years, Giselle has been considered the epitome of fine plastic art, genius music and deep drama. The folk legend about love that conquers death had inspired both Heinrich Heine and the poet Theophile Gautier, who turned it into a libretto.

The tragic plot hovering on the edge of reality and fantasy reveals the story of a girl who learns about her lover’s betrayal, and joins the Vilis – a group of brides who had died before the wedding and revisit the human world every midnight, to dance another straying lover to his death. The ghostlike dance of the Vilis upon a cemetery bathed in silver moonlight is one of the key moments of the play. Its fascinating mystical beauty plunges the audience into the mysterious world of ballet romanticism.

The stunning sets and costumes, breathtaking dancing and touching emotions of St. Petersburg Russian Ballet’s Giselle have never failed to captivate viewers over a quarter of a century. They inevitably share the mysterious energy of the performance, drawn into a whirlpool of mystical music and dance...