Giselle

Giselle is one of the most important and popular ballets in history. It appeared when French ballet had just undergone a revolution with Marie Taglioni‘s appearance as a ghostly Mother Superior in the “Ballet of the Nuns” (from Act III of Meyerbeer’s 1831 opera Robert le Diable) where nuns in white tutus came to life in a 16th century moonlit cloister. Taglioni’s fluid and effortless dancing gave the illusion of weightlessness and caused a great sensation, paving the ground for the great “white ballets” from classical dance’s Romantic period. Giselle and La Sylphide (also led by Marie Taglioni) inspired ballets like La Fille du Danube, L’Ombre, La Gitana and La Péri, stories that depicted the impossible love between mortals and elusive fantastic creatures set in earthly backdrops of alpine villages, Scottish highlands and Spanish riverbanks and that borrowed heavily from Romantic poetry and painting.



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Giselle ou Les Wilis premiered at the Paris Opera on 28 June, 1841 with Carlotta Grisi as Giselle, Lucien Petipa (brother of Marius) as Albrecht and Adèle Dumilâtre as Myrtha. The ballet was immediately declared not only a worthy successor to La Sylphide but also “the greatest ballet of its time”, a triumphant reception. Giselle remained in the Paris Opera repertoire until 1849. When it became outmoded the ballet was completely dropped (after 1868); it would only be seen again in Paris decades later as part of the Ballets Russes’ second Paris season, with Karsavina and Nijinsky in the lead roles.

Following its success in Paris Giselle toured around Europe, traveling as far as the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg. This particular 1842 production was staged by Titus, a ballet master who recreated the ballet from memory. But in 1848, with Jules Perrot coming into the Imperial Theatres as ballet master, a new Russian version of Giselle was staged with Marius Petipa as Albrecht. This Giselle stayed in repertory until 1859 when Perrot returned to Paris. Next came Marius Petipa’s 1862 version, with several alterations to cater for the Italian virtuoso ballerinas of the time, most notably, the insertion of the Act I Giselle variation as we know it.

Information from:
http://www.theballetbag.com/2011/01/11/giselle/
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