Giselle

Giselle is one of the most popular ballets of all time, gets a new DVD version recorded in 2006 with the London theater production of Covent Garden.The music of Adoph Adam is simple, with easy melodies, naive, sometimes even silly. But fell in public taste.The composer had 3 weeks to write the book and used portions of another of his own ballet, Le Pirate.The Covent Garden production is impeccable, perfect scenery and costumes were in keeping with the libretto.The direction of images is excellent, shows all the scenes with clarity.Light of a unique beauty and traditional choreography. The orchestra conducted by Boriz Cruzin has excellent sound, especially in the woods.Alina Cojocaru is in a state of grace. Criticized his performance in Sleeping Beauty by the lack of emotion, but that the dancer Giselle shows all his artistic potential. Your body and facial expressions are perfectly adapted to Giselle. Dance with delicacy printing a naivety poor provincial girl. Her mad scene that closes the first act is to shatter. By becoming Willis jumps beautifully giving the illusion of being a troubled spirit.Johan Kobborg shows Albrecht is a right, its best passages are when you the duets with Giselle. There is great chemistry between them, the end of the second act is remarkable.Hilarion is the most wronged character in the history of ballet, a man of pure heart and love go all out to show that such Giselle Albrecht is just a sleazy second-rate and consegue.Mas the girl is in love and when that happens it seems she can not think. Proof of Giselle that the prince is preppy boyfriend of another, or a great liar. What does he gain from it, death. Will visit the girl in his grave and take a Pataquiva of Willis who send him to the cemetery. What does heroin even after her death to the man who tried to open their eyes? Nothing, let him go to hell without remorca. But Giselle in her passion breathtaking saves the scoundrel, who lied to her saying he was poor and without compromise and caused his death. He quite ready to live and she mortinha da silva. What love can stand so dirty!Women of my Brazil you do this?Hilarion is represented by Martin Harvey and boy does the job perfectly. Another highlight is always exciting for the participation of Marianela Nunez, ballerina roles accepts "small" and turns it into huge, Myrtha its technical quality is exceptional and emotional.The corps de ballet of the Mountbatten participation has sometimes modest, sometimes interestingGISELLE-O BALÉ DA INJUSTIÇAGiselle é um dos balés mais populares de todos os tempos, ganha uma nova versão em DVD gravada em 2006 com produção do teatro londrino Covent Garden. A música de Adoph Adam é simples, com melodias fáceis, ingênuas , as vezes até bobinhas. Mas caiu no gosto do público.O compositor teve 3 semanas para compor a obra e utilizou trechos de outro balé de sua autoria, Le Pirate.A produção do Covent Garden é impecável, cenário e figurino perfeitos , condizentes com o libreto.A direção de imagens está excelente, mostra todas as cenas com clareza.Luz de uma beleza ímpar e coreografia tradicional. A orquestra regida por Boriz Cruzin tem excelente sonoridade, principalmente nas madeiras.Alina Cojocaru está em estado de graça. Critiquei sua apresentação em Sleeping Beauty pela falta de emoção, mas nessa Giselle a bailarina mostra todo seu potencial artístico. Seu corpo e suas expressões faciais se adaptam perfeitamente a Giselle .Dança com delicadeza imprimindo uma ingênuidade a pobre moça interiorana . Sua cena da loucura que fecha o primeiro ato é de arrasar. Quando se transforma em Willis salta com beleza dando a ilusão de ser um espírito atormentado.Johan Kobborg mostra-se um Albrecht correto, suas melhores passagens estão quando faz os duetos com Giselle. Existe grande química entre ambos, o final do segundo ato é memorável.Hilarion é o personagem mais injustiçado da história do balé, homem de coração puro e apaixonado faz de tudo para mostrar a Giselle que esse tal de Albrecht não passa de um pilantra de segunda categoria e o consegue.Mas a moça está apaixonada e quando isso acontece parece que ela não consegue pensar. Prova a Giselle que o príncipe mauricinho é noivo de outra, ou seja, um grande mentiroso. O que ele ganha com isso, a morte. Vai visitar a moça em seu túmulo e leva uma pataquada das Willis que o mandam ao cemitério. O que a heroína faz mesmo depois de morta para o homem que tentou abrir seus olhos? Nada, deixa ele ir para o inferno sem remorços. Mas Giselle em sua paixão arrebatadora salva o pilantra, aquele que mentiu para ela dizendo que era pobre e sem compromisso e provocou sua morte. Ele vivo para aprontar bastante e ela mortinha da silva. Que amor aguenta tanta sacanagem!Mulheres do meu Brasil vocês fariam isso?Hilarion é representado por Martin Harvey e o rapaz dá conta do recado com perfeição. Outro destaque fica para a sempre emocionante participação de Marianela Nunez, bailarina que aceita papéis "pequenos" e o transforma em enormes, sua Myrtha é de qualidade técnica e emotiva excepcional.O corpo de baile do Covent Gardem tem participação as vezes modesta, as vezes interessante.Ali Hassan Ayache

I ordered this performance of "Giselle" with great anticipation - I was aware of Alina Cojocaru's gifts and all indications pointed to a role tailor made for her. However, I was disappointed on many fronts. First, although Cojocaru IS a very fine dancer, and genuinely sympathetic by nature (as opposed to, say, a card-carrying diva like Makarova), she somehow failed to project a Giselle that survived the closing curtain. Whatever element, either technical or dramatic, that makes a performance of this role unforgettable, was absent. Cojocaru was good but not, as I somehow expected, great. Something fell flat, and I'm still not sure what it was. Today's dancers are not as good at mime as previous generations, and I think perhaps the mime was not vivid enough - not followed through strongly, and this was true of everyone, not just Cojocaru. Some cuts to this ballet are appreciated: e.g., Giselle's mother's warning in mime of what would happen to her if she died of her dancing went on far too long, as did the ancillary dancing. Cojocaru's mad scene was good; she seemed genuinely heartbroken, but not unhinged - the shift from normalcy to madness was not marked. This is the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, and the troupe is always fine, but in this case, the peasant pas de quatre that took the place of the sometimes excerpted peasant pas de deux seemed to take forever and wasn't particularly interesting (another cut I would have appreciated). The women acquitted themselves better than the men from the Royal's soloist rank here - the Royal's second-rank male soloists were of uncharacteristically dull quality.There were many things I did not care for in the production, too. Poor Hilarion was done up to look as he were barely out of the Stone Age - weighting the deck unfairly toward the elegant stranger who suddenly appears in the village - unsurprising that the fine-natured Giselle is not enthusiastic about him, but then, were they not affianced before Albrecht appears? Peter Wright's production makes the mistake of going too rustic, more 15th century than mid-19th century. One of this ballet's problems can be a tendency to bucolic prettiness. Too far in either direction is a disservice to a production of "Giselle", and this one errs too far in the drab, rustic direction. Aiming for "authenticity is pointless with "Giselle", as there is no authenticity here: it's a 19th century redemption morality tale and no one really dies of a broken heart after a one-day romance with a virtual stranger.Re Act II: Here, Cojocaru's technical weaknesses were more evident, despite her flexibility and legendary extensions. If you compare her work to the fleet, airy footwork, airborne quality, and gorgeous port de bras of someone like Carla Fracci in her prime, Cojocaru again falls into the good but not great category. The exquisite, aching tenderness that should inform every movement of Giselle, escaped her. She was light and sweet but not so much more so than other Giselles I have seen.The Act II sets, however, were better - it's hard to screw up a forest bathed in moonlight. The Myrtha, Marianela Nunez, was excellent - it's a thankless role but she danced it full out, with technical sureness and conviction.Coming to the Albrecht, I was also disappointed in Kobbold, who I understand is Cojocaru's partner in real life. A clean, decent danseur, an attentive partner, but a curiously flat characterization with not one moment that would, either technically or dramatically, survive the falling of the final curtain. If you have seen Erik Bruhn, with whom Kobbold shares Danish nationality but not much else, Peter Schaufuss (another Dane), Ivan Nagy, Angel Coralli, Anthony Dowell, Wayne Eagling . . . this gentleman unfortunately is not on the same level as these Albrechts. Able to perform the steps and partner decently, and no more.I disliked the costumes for Act II, as well. Many productions dispense with the wings on the Wilis, which I heartily support; with a ballet that can teeter close to silliness, the wings are an unnecessary risk. And the Wilis are not sprites who can fly, like Sylphides: they are the ghosts of dead women. The wings aren't even appropriate. I tolerate them in is La Sylphide, where they are a necessity because of the manner in which the Sylphide dies at the end. Cojocaru shares with Carla Fracci a less than beautifully proportioned and muscled body, with bony shoulders and wide feet - the narrow flattish costume for the Royal's Act II Giselle did her body no favors. Fracci very cleverly had her own special Act II costume made, and its very full, weightless skirt, flutters of material at the shoulders, and tiny rosettes at the neckline, conceal Fracci's flaws and accentuate her strengths. Cojocaru should consider doing the same.The corps did very well in their big scene at the beginning of Act II as the music built up to their traveling arabesques and Myrtha's final set of turns and grand jetes.All in all, the only word that comes to mind about this performance is work-a-day. On the recommendation of so many of you who also reviewed this DVD, I ordered the well spoken of performance by the Dutch National Ballet and will review it there.I have seen many Giselles in my time, both on film and live: Ulanova on film, Makarova on film and live, Fracci live and on film, Fonteyn on film (very poor quality film, though), Lynn Seymour live and on film, Viviana Durante live with ABT in the late 1990s, Gelsey Kirkland live, and a quite decent performance by the young Marianna Tcherkassky. Of these, only two Giselles emerged as haunting: Ulanova and Fracci. Viviana Durante, tiny and fragile with tremendous technique, seemingly a natural for the role, and who blew my socks off as Aurora, also proved a bland disappointment as Giselle.Thus, with all its flaws in direction and camera work and cuts, so far the American Ballet Theater 1968 DVD studio performance of David Blair's lovely production of "Giselle" is still my personal favorite. Its record of Fracci at the height of her powers, with her beautiful, expressive face born for the stage, her swift footwork and creamy, weightless port de bras in Act II, combined with the elegant, cool aspect of Erik Bruhn as Albrecht, the darkly handsome Bruce Marks as the devoted Hilarion (actually looking like someone Giselle might have settled on if Albrecht hadn't appeared), and the cold, imperious dancing of Toni Lander as Myrtha, is very hard to beat. I have yet to see a second act as ravishing as Fracci's, or a mad scene as heartbreaking as Ulanova's, although she was close to retirement at the time the film was made - yet, the look of wandering vagueness on her face as she plucked the petals from the imaginary daisy is something I have never forgotten.The problem for all Giselles is that in order to make the role haunting, you need to be a great stage actress with tremendous powers of projection, as well as a great dancer, and there is no guarantee that any dancer, no matter how accomplished technically, will possess both qualities. Fonteyn and Fracci are exceptions: had they not been great dancers, they could have had careers in the theater. You don't need to be a great actress to pull off a spectacular Aurora or Odette or Sugar Plum Fairy - if you have the technique to pull off the steps, a decent if not superb dramatic effort will satisfy an audience. But a truly great Giselle requires a great stage actress, or all the audience takes away is a sort of antique charm that pleases the eye but not the heart.I truly hoped to see an unforgettable Giselle here, but did not - sorry to disagree with so many of you! The DVD is not by any means a waste of money but this generation's Great Giselle it is not.

I saw this production twice at the Opera house , Covent Garden (London) earlier this year and couldn't wait to buy this Blu-Ray. The performance by Osipova is fantastic, showing off her phenominal and polished technical and acting skills. Her interpretation of Giselle made me cry when i saw the live performance and later when watching this Blu-Ray. She portrays Giselle in the first act as very vunerable and later crushed when she learns the truth about the man she loves. her second act role is that of a ghost and one that still feels enourmous love for Albrecht. The intensity of this devotion is tangiable. The filming is first rate and the orchestral pace is perfect. There is also a very useful bonus film giving comments and insights by the dancers on this interpretation. I have no hesitation about recommending this Blu-ray to any ballet lover since this is one that you would want to watch time and time again without ever being bored, since on repeated viewings I always see something new in the production.

Although, up till now, I wouldn't have said 'Giselle' was my favourite ballet, this performance choreographed by Marius Petipa is so outstanding that it is now a joint top favourite. Natalia Osipova gives an all time great performance as Giselle. with the appropriate emotion expressed in her every movement and Carlos Acosta is equally good as Count Albrecht. I was also much taken with Hikaru Kebayashi's performances as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis. In fact, all the performers, including the Corps de Ballet, could not have danced better. There's perfect co-ordination between music and movement throughout the performance. This may seem an obvious statement to make, but it needs to be said because, surprise, surprise, it doesn't always happen. I particularly liked how every nuance of emotion and meaning was so tellingly expressed in the choreography.All told, we have here a supreme example of how ballet should be staged and performed. No matter how brilliant a performance is it's always possible to something just a wee bit out of kilter here and there, but only most extreme of pernickityizers (is that a word?!) would want to find any fault here. I feel sure that it's safe to say that, if you are a ballet lover, you will love this. Yes, it's sad, but it's also thought provoking, uplifting and emotionally satisfying. The name 'Wilis' for the dancing spirits is interesting. It reminds one of the saying: 'It gives me the willies' meaning something is getting on our nerves., which is rather like what the Wilis are doing here to the distressed Albrecht.. I was impressed with both the picture and the sound quality of the Blu-Ray. disc. By the way, Giselle was first performed as a ballet on 28 June 1841.

This is a very fine performance of Giselle. I prefer it marginally to the more recent Bolshoi version and for me this remains my favourite performance.Cojocaru's dancing in a role that seems to have been conceived for her, portrays the heroine as the lovable but fatally naïve country girl that she is and as her mother (excellent portrayal by Sandra Conley) so clearly understands. This fragility carries over convincingly to the second act where Nunez, as leader of the Willis in this act is not as cold-bloodied as some. As a result the element of redemption through love is relatively unimpeded here.The two competing men here are well up to the task required of them although I always personally feel that the morally justified Hilarion is appallingly sacrificed so that the real villain, Albrecht, can escape proper justice. Nevertheless Hilarion as portrayed by Martin Harvey and Albrecht as portrayed by Johan Kobborg do everything that can be done to bring their roles to life on the stage.The corps de ballet are on fine form with involving portrayals of the various crowd scenes in the first act and as the Willis in the second act. The Willis are as ethereally effective in this performance as usual although it must be admitted that those in an earlier Kirov performance were able to move as if on wheels. Astonishing!The imaging is crisp and without movement blur. The colour range is well balanced. The sound is presented in stereo and surround 5.0 and this leads me to the reservations in the following paragraph. These may simply be the result of the recording not having a designated 5.1 sub-woofer channel to specifically take care of the bass frequencies.The problem for me concerns the sound quality heard in surround mode on particularly wide-ranging equipment. This shows the orchestra to be working in the dry acoustic that you would expect in a packed theatre which can be adjusted to in all respects except one. That is the booming and undefined sound of the bass drum. This becomes oppressive and totally out of balance with the rest of the soundstage and is at odds with the delicate nature of the ballet. This is not a problem of the musical scoring but rather that of poor recording. This may not be an issue with less wide ranging reproduction where the bass frequencies are carried only by the main left and right speakers which often have less extended bass. Maybe a case of less giving more in terms of satisfaction!In summary therefore I feel that five stars is richly deserved for the ballet but only three for the sound quality as revealed on my admittedly somewhat extreme equipment. However I am also aware that this may not be audibly significant with most replay equipment so perhaps only a minor adjustment of rating probably needs to be made. An overall adjustment to 4 stars would therefore seem to be fair to accommodate ballet enthusiasts who are also keen on h-fi.

This is a very fine performance of Giselle. I prefer it marginally to the more recent Bolshoi version and for me this remains my favourite performance.Cojocaru's dancing in a role that seems to have been conceived for her, portrays the heroine as the lovable but fatally naïve country girl that she is and as her mother (excellent portrayal by Sandra Conley) so clearly understands. This fragility carries over convincingly to the second act where Nunez, as leader of the Willis in this act is not as cold-bloodied as some. As a result the element of redemption through love is relatively unimpeded here.The two competing men here are well up to the task required of them although I always personally feel that the morally justified Hilarion is appallingly sacrificed so that the real villain, Albrecht, can escape proper justice. Nevertheless Hilarion as portrayed by Martin Harvey and Albrecht as portrayed by Johan Kobborg do everything that can be done to bring their roles to life on the stage.The corps de ballet are on fine form with involving portrayals of the various crowd scenes in the first act and as the Willis in the second act. The Willis are as ethereally effective in this performance as usual although it must be admitted that those in an earlier Kirov performance were able to move as if on wheels. Astonishing!The imaging is crisp and without movement blur. The colour range is well balanced. The sound is presented in stereo and surround 5.0 and this leads me to the reservations in the following paragraph. These may simply be the result of the recording not having a designated 5.1 sub-woofer channel to specifically take care of the bass frequencies.The problem for me concerns the sound quality heard in surround mode on particularly wide-ranging equipment. This shows the orchestra to be working in the dry acoustic that you would expect in a packed theatre which can be adjusted to in all respects except one. That is the booming and undefined sound of the bass drum. This becomes oppressive and totally out of balance with the rest of the soundstage and is at odds with the delicate nature of the ballet. This is not a problem of the musical scoring but rather that of poor recording. This may not be an issue with less wide ranging reproduction where the bass frequencies are carried only by the main left and right speakers which often have less extended bass. Maybe a case of less giving more in terms of satisfaction!In summary therefore I feel that five stars is richly deserved for the ballet but only three for the sound quality as revealed on my admittedly somewhat extreme equipment. However I am also aware that this may not be audibly significant with most replay equipment so perhaps only a minor adjustment of rating probably needs to be made. An overall adjustment to 4 stars would therefore seem to be fair to accommodate ballet enthusiasts who are also keen on h-fi.

Giselle, so loved by my french girlfriends. It is different to the 'sunny' ballets that I know. it is a romantic ballet. The first half is gay, colourful and sunny the second half takes place in a forest with the graves of the 'wilies'! Wilies are girls who died of love & disappointment, rejected by their lovers before marriage they now return to dance all in white to wreak their vengeance on men. Gisele joins them when Albrecht, who has sworn hus undying love for her, turns out to be engaged to a princess, he is a prince in disguise. Gisee has killed herself and Albrecht comes to sob on her grave, the wilies appear, their vengeance is to make hime dance all night until he dies of exhaustion, Gisele keeps him going until dawn, when the magic powers of the wilies disappears, but the darkest hours are before the dawn. I tell you all this because we had no idea of the form of this ballet, and when we settled down to watch it, I looked in the booklet for information, conditioned by my theatre going years, while the orchestra is tuning up and the audience still arriving, you read the programme to understand what you are going to see. Well the booklet provided didnt provide a scenario, just an essay which would be good to read after vuing. In tiny print I later discovered the scenario is on the dvd, special feature, explicit and well told, but too late, when we watched a second time with knowledge, it made all the difference to our appreciation.Giselle and her mother were superb, Albrecht, an agreeable young man, lacked 'superbe' but in the second half when he dances with the wilie Giselle, he is excellent when he tries to grasp her, three times, she slips through his fingers like smoke, despite the encouragement of my companion, C;. The wilies stay on the ground, apparently in earlier versions, the wilies were on wires and floated through the trees to menace their preys, I would love to see that, but their steps are very original. The music is good, in the vigorous style of Rossini, the composer was Adolphe Adam, the ballet was first performed in Paris at the Opera Garnier, two days later we saw a superb programme on TV of The 'petites rats' of the Opera Garnier, there is a dvd of this, (the first feature is disappointing but the rest, divine), where they talked of their beloved ballet 'Giselle'. So although the second act coould be gloomy, it isnt, the music is so lively.