Giselle

Giselle, jeune villageoise s’éprend du prince Albrecht qui la séduit. Apprenant qu’il est toujours fiancé à une princesse, Giselle perd la raison et meurt…

Giselle, a young village girl, falls in love with prince Albrecht who seduces her. Learning that he is already engaged to a princess, Giselle becomes mad and dies. The Queen of the Wilis (the spirits of young girls who have been betrayed) condemns the prince to dance until he dies, but Giselle’s spirit interposes itself and saves his life. The Giselle of the Yacobson Ballet follows the tradition and preserves the dramatic intensity, emotion and original romantic style of the work. Created in 1841, Giselle represents, in the words of Serge Lifar: “the apotheosis of romantic ballet”. The libretto written by Théophile Gautier applies perfectly the romantic principle of the mix of genres: pastoral in a realistic and prosaic world that ends in tragedy in act I, and an eery atmosphere and fantasy transfiguration of the drama in act II. This libretto opposes, in a contrast that is first social, the spontaneous peasant girl to the haughty duchess, and then, in a moral and metaphysical antithesis, the vengeful Myrtha to the redemptive Giselle. This ballet also recalls the infinitely romantic theme of madness, which is fundamentally opposed to the rationalism of the classics, as well as the theme of love beyond the grave. The alternating tonalities of the music reinforce the dramatic effectiveness of the narration. Giselle is considered to be the most complete romantic ballet as it concentrates all these ingredients intelligently, with nothing appearing as suffocating or too hard to digest.

Source: Maison de la Danse