11 April 2020 (Sat), 19:00 World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Marvellous Main (Historic) Stage - ! PREMIERE ! Classical Ballet Adolphe Adam "Giselle" (Ballet in two acts Production by Yuri Grigorovich)
Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes
The performance has 1 intermission
Schedule for Adolphe Adam "Giselle" (Ballet in two acts Production by Yuri Grigorovich) 2022
Conductor: Pavel Klinichev
Composer: Adolphe Adam Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich Costume Designer: Simon Virsaladze Choreography: Marius Petipa Music Director: Alexander Kopylov Light Designer: Mikhail Sokolov Designer: Simon Virsaladze
Ballet company: Bolshoi Ballet Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Classical Ballet in 2 act
Premiere of this production: 2 May 1987, Bolshoi theatre, Moscow, Russia
Giselle is the most poetic piece of all the romantic ballets and is widely admired by the public. The second act is one of the main achievements of classical choreography.
First performed in 1841, Giselle was an immediate hit. With music by Adolphe Adam and a libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the ballet touches on the great romantic themes: local colour, a pastoral love affair doomed to end in tragedy, a plunge into fantasy and redemption through the power of love.
Libretto by Theophile Gautier and Jean-Henry Saint-Georges
Synopsis
Act I A small, peaceful
village, bathed in sunlight. It is inhabited by simple,
artless people. Giselle, a young peasant girl, is rejoicing
in the sun, the blue sky, the singing of the birds and, most
of all, in the happiness of pure, trusting love which has lit
up her life. She is in love and is confident that she
is loved. The gamekeeper, who is in love with Giselle, tries
in vain to persuade her that Albrecht, her loved one, is not
a peasant at all but a nobleman in disguise and that
he is deceiving her.
The gamekeeper manages to steal into
the cottage which Albrecht is renting in the village and here
he finds a silver sword with a coat of arms on it. Now
the gamekeeper knows for sure that Albrecht is concealing his noble
origins.
A party of distinguished noblemen, attended
by a sumptuous suite, seek rest and refreshment in the village
after the hunt. The peasants give their guests a cordial
welcome.
Albrecht is embarrassed by this unexpected meeting:
he tries to hide the fact he knows them for, in their
company, is his betrothed, Bathilde. Meanwhile the gamekeeper shows
everyone Albrecht’s sword and, unmasking him, tells them of the latter’s
deceit. Giselle is shocked to the core by the perfidy of her
loved one. The pure, crystal-clear world of her faith, hopes and dreams has
been destroyed. She goes mad and dies.
Act
II Night-time. The ghostly forms of the Wilis, died brides,
appear among the graves of the village church yard which is bathed
in moonlight. “Dressed in bridal gowns and garlands
of flowers...The irresistibly beautiful Wilis danced to the light
of the moon. And as they felt the time given them for dancing was
running out and that they had again to return to their icy graves, their
dancing became more and more impassioned and rapid...” (Heinrich
Heine).
The Wilis catch sight of the gamekeeper who, suffering from
pangs of conscience, has come to visit Giselle’s grave.
At the command of Myrtha, the unrelenting Queen of the Wilis, the
Wilis encircle the gamekeeper and make him dance until he drops lifeless,
to the ground.
Albrecht too, is unable to forget Giselle.
And, at dead of night, he comes to her grave. The Wilis
immediately encircle the youth. Albrecht is now threatened by the
same horrifying fate as the gamekeeper. But the shadow of Giselle
now appears and her eternal and self-sacrificing love protects and saves
Albrecht from the anger of the Wilis.
The ghostly, white forms
of the Wilis vanish with the first rays of the rising sun. And
Giselle’s ethereal shadow vanishes too, but Giselle will always
be alive in Albrecht’s memory — the ever-present regret for
a lost love, a love that is stronger than death.
Schedule for Adolphe Adam "Giselle" (Ballet in two acts Production by Yuri Grigorovich) 2022
"Giselle" by the Bolshoi Ballet - Lunkina & Gudanov |
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