GISELLE performs at the Anayansi Theater this September
A love story in a supernatural setting, the essence of romanticism. It will be presented at the Anayansi Theater of the ATLAPA Convention Center in Panama City on September 27.
Giselle is the absolute masterpiece of romantic ballet. It was premiered in 1841 at the Paris Opera, becoming a pure and fundamental piece of classical dance. A story full of emotions, where a tragic love predominates, as well as characters and real worlds, which are confused with other fantastic ones.
Unlike popular ballets that were sometimes rejected at their premiere, Giselle triumphed from the first performance reaching the hearts of the public, both for its story, as for its music and message. The present version of the master Sasa Adamovic, picks up the spirit of the original choreography of Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, respecting the tradition.
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam, choreography by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli and libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy, based on De l'Allemagne (1835) by Heinrich Heine. Considered a masterpiece in the classical ballet canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, France, on June 28, 1841. Giselle's variation of the The first act is not original to Adam, it was incorporated later and it is believed that its author was Ludwig Minkus. Giselle is one of the ballet blanc masterpieces.
First act. Madness scene.
In a village in the medieval Rhineland, Hilarion, a hunter, loves Giselle and trembles with jealousy for Loys, under whose peasant countenance stands Albrecht, the Duke of Silesia, who appears to meet Giselle after hiding his sword and shield. In the woods. The young woman leaves the house and accepts the tender courtship of Albrecht disguised as Loys, who swears to love her to comfort her for the refusal of a daisy that she had stripped. Hilarion later declares his love for Giselle, but she rejects him and he vows revenge.
The peasant harvest festivals begin, to which Giselle joins with enthusiasm and not without the fear of her mother, since she had had very weak health since she was a child. While the dance is taking place, her mother tells how young women who died before they were married become Willis, white ghosts who roam the woods in the moonlight. The festivities are interrupted to welcome the Prince of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, who return from a hunt with their entourage. Giselle dances for the princess, who gives her a necklace and leaves with her family again, resuming the peasant festival. When Albrecht arrives, Hilarion unmasks him by showing the sword that he has found hidden in the forest, and calls again with the sound of the horn the noble hunters and Princess Bathilde, Albrecht's fiancée. The latter, with feigned ease and justifying himself as simply wishing to be distracted between the peasant dances, takes Bathilde by her arm and leads her away, without taking care of Giselle. Giselle, understanding her deception, falls into madness and raves, initiating dance steps among the dismayed people present, to finally die in her mother's arms before a stunned and desperate Albrecht.
Second act. Giselle.
Hilarion goes to the forest to visit the grave of her beloved and is surprised by midnight and with it the arrival of the Willis.
Myrtha, his queen, is in charge of making the call to the Willis in order to initiate, one more night, the ritual of revenge, with Hilarion being her first victim. Hearing footsteps, the Willis disappear. It is Albrecht who approaches, he feels so much regret that he has gone into the forest looking for Giselle's grave and begging for her forgiveness. Giselle becomes visible moved by her repentance and tries to prevent him from leaving the forest, but it is too late and the relentless Myrtha orders the Willis to lure Albrecht into her presence where, by making him dance, they will manage to take his life.
The force of love that Giselle feels inside her will be Albrecht's salvation, giving her encouragement and making him survive until dawn. With dawn the Willis disappear, and so Giselle has to say goodbye to her beloved forever. Albrecht tries in vain to hold her back, but she has to follow her sad destiny wrapped in that curse caused by the man's deception and betrayal.