Ballet "Giselle": content, interesting facts, video, history

A. Adan Ballet "Giselle"

At the heart of the work "Giselle" by Adolph Adan is the ancient Slavic legend of the villies - the dead young unmarried girls betrayed by their lovers. From now on, they are forced to avenge themselves, at night killing young men, drawing them into their dances.

The performance itself is a slightly modified and supplemented fantastic story, on the plot of which three librettists worked.

Summary of the ballet Adana "Giselle" and a lot of interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary

The plot of the ballet "Giselle" shows a gentle and at the same time mystical story about a young and naive girl who loves with all her heart and is confident in the response feelings of her chosen Albert. But her admirer of the forester, opens the deception of her lover, as a result of which she loses her mind and dies, unable to endure the betrayal.

Now Giselle is not a simple peasant girl, but vindictive and cruel, like all the Jeeps whom she joins. The first person they punished was the Forester, who came to the grave of Giselle. The next to this place was Count Albert, but the soul of the girl is still gently and devotedly loving him, protects her lover from the vengeful jeep, saving him from death. With the dawn, the shadows of all the girls and Giselle herself disappear, leaving only a deep trace in the soul and memory of Albert, as the eternal regret for a lost love that is stronger than death.

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Interesting Facts

• Such a popular performance, which was studied by many artists, continues to keep a lot of ambiguities and omissions. What do the four clocks mean, why did Hans and Albert go to the cemetery at night, which connected the prince and mother Gisselle?
• And what do you know about the composer Adolf Adana, who wrote the legendary ballet? He was a cheerful and diversified man, the researchers love to mention in his works that he trained his frog, who lives on his desk in a bank and defiantly jumping to the accompaniment.
• Having visited Petersburg and having received an invitation from the emperor for the position of court composer with a chic salary, A. Adan hastened to refuse, finding our country barbarous, filled with "wild traditions". And he wrote his ballet, which brought him worldwide recognition, in just ten days of work.
• In the first production of "Giselle" (1841), dance and facial expressions occupied almost the same shares in the performance. To convey the emotions of pantomime, dancers had to have considerable acting skills. Subsequently, the dance began to give a leading role in the disclosure of the plot.
• The name of the play and the name of the main character come from the Germanic word "gisil", meaning "pledge", "pledge".
• Immediately after the premiere of the ballet, the hairstyle with a center parting worn by the main character became a real hit among Parisian fashionistas.
• It is noteworthy that at first the famous choreographer Jules Perrot worked with the singer Giselle (his wife) furtively, but gradually he began to be attracted more and more to work on the play. As a result, the entire main party was fully developed by him alone.
• After the deafening success of the ballet during the premiere, the fee of Carlotta Grizi, the performer of the main part, was immediately raised.

• At the premiere of the ballet Giselle, the name of Jules Perrot was not indicated in the poster, and only a few people associated with the creation of the ballet were aware of his huge role in the choreography.
• One of the authors of the libretto, Theophile Gautier, was related to the first singer of Giselle's party, Carlotta Grisi. He was married to her older sister Ernest.
• It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 20th century, Western ballet art almost fell into decay and Giselle was preserved only thanks to the Russian stage. It was the version of M. Petipa, which she successfully performed in 1910 during the "Russian Seasons Abroad", which was able to renew her interest in ballet in her homeland.
• The fact that the transformation of Giselle's music belongs to Minkus is mentioned in few places. Also, the composer Pugni is the author of the female variation, in the inset Pas de deux.

History of creation

In 1840, Adolf Adan arrived back in Paris from his trip to St. Petersburg. In Russia, he went for a dancer Maria Taloni. Especially for her, the composer wrote the ballet "The Sea Robber", and in Paris he began a new play "Giselle".

It is based on one ancient legend of the jeep, which Heinrich Heine recreated in his book, On Germany. It is known that the main author of the libretto is the French poet Theophile Gautier. He is also called a critic of the romantic school. In addition to his passion for literature, his second passion was traveling around the world. He even visited Russia, after which he wrote “Journey to Russia” and “Treasures of Russian Art”. In addition, his romantic style has found application in wonderful ballet scenarios. Researchers of his work notice that scenes based on his works were especially popular in Russia.

While working on the ballet Giselle, Gauthier proposed to change the legend, transferring the actions to another country, changing titles, names and customs. So, all the action now takes place in Thuringia, and the main character, Albert, became the Duke of Silesia (later the Earl). Batilde's father now became a prince (later in the duke of Courland). In addition to Gauthier, librettist Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean Coralli (choreographer) also worked on the performance. It is noteworthy that the librettists came up with the most appropriate plot in just three days. In addition, the ballet should be actively involved Jules Joseph Perrot - the most talented dancer. There is a version that he met in Italy with Carlotta Grisi, the future ballet star. It was for her that he later invented the party of Giselle.

Productions

The premiere of the performance was successfully held in June 1841 at the Royal Academy of Music. Gisselle was played by Carlotta Grizi, and Lucien Petipa played the role of Albert. Jean Coralli also took part in this production, playing the role of Hilarion.

The scenery was masterfully decorated by Pierre Luc-Charles Siseri. The audience very enthusiastically met the play. Theatrical critics tirelessly praised the composer, directors, performers and librettists in their reviews. In favor of the undoubted success of the play speaks the fact that for another whole month only Giselle was staged on the stage of the Paris Opera. So, in one year alone there were 26 performances. The first edition existed on the stage for 18 years, and during this time the ballet was performed 150 times.

The next production took place in Great Britain, where Carlotta Grizi went after her husband Jules Perrot. And in this version, they have already performed together and on the poster, his name was indicated as the director of the performance. After that, the ballet was repeatedly staged with great success on various world stages: Austria, Italy, Denmark and of course, Russia.

For the first time the Russian public appreciated this masterpiece in December 1842 on the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theater, under the direction of Antoine Tityus. Already in 1943, P. Didier performed this production in the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. Another wonderful ballet edition was performed by Marius Petipa at the Mariinsky Theater. After that, many other choreographers turned to this ballet and successfully performed in various theaters. Interestingly, in Soviet times, choreographers were asked to change the plot. The ideologue did not like the fact that the ordinary girl was inflamed with feelings towards the aristocrat and demanded that forester Hans be in his place. And some figures even demanded that the ballet be excluded from the repertoire, since it is not a Soviet ballet and it promotes not entirely ethical things. However, despite all this, the performance remained on stage.

Among the original productions is the work of Mats Ek in 1982, where Ana Laguna appeared as Giselle. In this version, all the second action is transferred to a psychiatric hospital. This Swedish choreographer has long been famous for precisely unusual performances of classic scenes. It is enough to remember that in the “Swan Lake” he barely goes bald birds, and Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty” and completely falls asleep due to the abuse of prohibited drugs. In Giselle, the first act practically does not depart from the original version, only the main character does not die, but begins to brawl, and the inhabitants try to calm her down, pressing the sharp forks to the ground. After she is in a psychiatric hospital. It turns out that this Giselle saves her beloved not at all from the jeep, but from the raging psychos.

It is noteworthy that this performance was filmed in the same year. In addition to this version, there are a number of other films. So, in 1969, the ballet was filmed by American director Hugo Nibling, and David Blair became the ballet master. Emil Lothian’s feature film "Anna Pavlova", starring Galina Belyaev, was shot in 1983. In addition, such an interesting story attracted and director Gerbetta Ross, who created the film "The Dancers" in 1987; Alexey Teacher, who is the author of the painting "Mania Giselle", shot in 1996. This version tells about the life of the great dancer Olga Spesivtseva. The film has a small excerpt from the first act, which shows the scene of Giselle's madness. Also, this picture is interesting because it has unique shots dating from 1932 from Giselle with Olga Spesyvtseva and Anton Dolin in the main roles.

In October 2015, the audience in Israel was able to appreciate the brilliant idea of ​​the choreographer Mikhail Lavrovsky. In his "Giselle" everything that happens on the stage was performed according to the classical pattern, but the scenery itself was in 3D, which led the entire auditorium to delight. The special design of the five screens allowed to change the space, reveal an incredible story on the stage and emphasize its fantastic.

Perhaps, a completely unique project by Maria Sokolova can be attributed to completely unusual productions. Its essence is that everyone who is familiar with the basics of ballet choreography can take part in the staging of a classical performance. At the end of 2016, the ballet "Giselle" will be shown on the stage of the Moscow Theater.

This ballet is unique in its kind. In the center of the performance is the story of a large and incredibly beautiful soul of a peasant girl, who is opposed to a selfish aristocracy. Only later does the main idea change and revenge comes to the fore. At the same time, the musical text of a ballet cannot be called simply an accompaniment to the dances. It stands out for its spirituality and character. All images of the characters and their inner world received a very subtle embodiment in the romantic ballet dance. In addition, the unusually rich content of the play, a great idea and vivid images allowed him to become one of the most famous and favorite ballets for more than one hundred and seventy years. We offer you right now to appreciate it and to see "Giselle" in a magnificent setting and excellent quality.

We are pleased to offer ballet dancers and a symphony orchestra for the performance of numbers and excerpts from the ballet "Giselle" at your event.