Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 286
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I didn't know what to expect from Lamb in Giselle, but I'd be surprised in Anjuli wouldn't have gotten the required tears going for Sarah's performance. She managed to be both fragile and strong, leaning more to the utter heartbroken than raving mad at the end of ActI.

 

Would have liked to see her with Pennefather, but her partnership with McRae was a very very nice consolation. Those two really work together for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For "mad" perhaps read-"driven to distraction"  -she has what we now call a nervous breakdown- the excess of her emotion temporarily deprives her of normal reason...

Not an uncommon situation -?

Ballet-like opera- is really all about life and that's why we cry?

 

Albrecht just has to react which is always difficult to make interesting.

I agree with Don Q fan that McRae was  far the  most moving.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a lot of debate about that. I know a lot of dancers (past and present) who would disagree with the adjective "mad" for the end of act 1.

 

I am grateful for the insight from bangorballetboy and Mary and also for the debate over whether Giselle stabbed herself or died of shock. I must also say that I found the notes on the ballet in the current programme very interesting. All of these contributions have added considerably to my appreciation of the work,

 

I first saw Giselle when I was studying Hamlet and I have always had Ophelia's mad scene in mind. In fact literally because I would have seen Dante Gabriel Rosetti's painting at the same time.

 

One of my favourite Giselles was Carla Fracci. American Ballet Theatre visited London in the early 1970s. I had seen the Royal Ballet's version several times with all the principals of the time and had a set view of the ballet.   The Americans' version was very different but no less moving.  I may be confusing it with another version that I have seen but I think Hilarion survived in theirs and the curtain fell as he shook hands with Albrecht. One lesson I learned from watching two fine companies from different continents is that there is more than one way of interpreting the same ballet.  That goes for theatre goers as well as choreographers and dancers.

Edited by terpsichore
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Beauties of the Opera and Ballet, which describes the first performances of Giselle, with Carlotta Grisi as the heroine, she definitely comits suicide her mind having given way "under the severe trial" of the betrayal.  "...............her eye fell on the glittering insignia of Count Albrecht's rank and her own desolation, she siezed the sword and sought to plunge it into her side.  The rapid hand of Loys (Albrecht) dashed the weapon aside but not before a deep and fatal wound had pierced the young and innocent maiden's breast."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bring some binocs/opera glasses, then: the seats are at the back.  And of course, depending on the length of the queue it might be a question of which performance has the better ticket options.  Someone said there were 95 people in the day queue on Saturday, I think it was - but then of course that was for Osipova's debut and for Acosta.

Thanks Alison. I shall make sure I'm in the queue in plenty of time.

 

I'm long sighted so I've always done well in those seats. I love the acoustics up there as well. I have some gorgeous family heirloom opera glasses and the ROH is about the only place I feel they fit in :rolleyes:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen several versions of Giselle's death:

 

1. Broken heart/madness

 

2. Weak heart - which is earlier intimated by her mother.

 

3. Madness - Attempted suicide and weak heart.

 

4. Madness and then suicide.

 

All make sense (well, sense in the sense of ballet stories)

 

Maybe one is buried in unconsecrated ground for attempted suicide (I don't know I'm not an authority on this :))  

 

I also seem to recall that it is Hillarion who puts the cross on her grave - so maybe that's not considered "official" - and yet it is still invested with "power" since initially Giselle brings Albrecht over to it so he is shielded by its power.

 

In reading the Mackrell/Crane "Oxford Dictionary of the Dance" - the synopsis says:  "...drives Giselle into madness and death."  and thus does not stipulate how the death occurred.

 

 

Thanks for that, Anjuli.  So I suppose you could add one more variation - stabbed by accident, which various people try to intervene when she is playing with the sword, a bit like Mercutio in R & J.  Sure I've seen that one as well. 

 

 

Regarding the use of the word "mad", I think any girl humiliated and shamed in public, by finding out that the man she loves doesn't actually exist, and has been dallying with her for his own amusement, would temporarily go off her rocker, to use the common parlance.  Although in my case I would be more likely to try and stab Albrecht, the dirty, rotten scoundrel! 

 

I thought that there was, in the past, room for the each individual Giselle to interpret the role as she chose.  That is why I was confused when the RB production currently doesn't allow for a choice.  Pity really, because it would be nice to see a dancer able to put a slightly different emphasis on the role, as she feels appropriate. 

 

Still, as long as the acting and action are convincing, that is really all that matters, I suppose. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The original "book" of Giselle as quoted by Cyril Beaumont in his book "The Ballet Called Giselle" makes it quite clear that Giselle's death is suicide while the balance of her mind is disturbed. "She seizes Albrecht's sword still lying on the ground, and at first plays mechanically with  the weapon, then she falls on its sharp point just as her mother leaps upon her and drags it away."

There is also a gesture in the mad scene when Giselle finds blood on her hands and arms and attempts to wipe it off. This was made quite clear in Sarah Lamb's performance when she also wipes her hands on her skirt. Finally, the fact that Giselle's tomb is in the forest shows that as a suicide she has had to be buried on unhallowed ground and not in the village cemetery.

 

A further aspect of this scene which I recall reading somewhere is that when Giselle first picks up the sword she does so by its point rather than the hilt and proceeds to draw it in a circle around herself indicating at one moment that she thinks she is holding a snake. The bystanders all recoil rather than trying to intervene because she has drawn a circle around herself with a reverse cross - the hilt - a procedure that has power in witchcraft and creates a line which they dare not cross.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Americans' version was very different but no less moving.  I may be confusing it with another version that I have seen but I think Hilarion survived in theirs and the curtain fell as he shook hands with Albrecht.

 

That must be a bit strange: it would surely dilute Albrecht's "there but for the grace of God ..." feeling at the end of the ballet if Hilarion had survived.  I can't imagine him surviving ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She has blood on her arms and hands as a result of stabbing herself, surely, rather than just playing with the sword. When drawing the circle round herself with sword at one point she moves the sword from side to side rather than keeping the line continuous. I have always understood this as a reference to the mime for snake.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have never seen a version in which Hillarion survives.  It seems that his death is meant to show the power of the Wilis.

 

On another aspect of the story....

 

Giselle lives in a village.  One would presume that most of the people either know one another or have at least seen  one another.  So, how does a young man suddenly come along and Giselle unquestionably accepts him.  Since he has an ongoing life in another setting as a nobelman - he probably comes to the village intermittantly.  Does Giselle  not wonder who he is?  The rest of the villagers seem less accepting of him.  Giselle seems to have a weak head as well as a weak heart.  Or maybe that unquestioning acceptance is indicative of her innocence.

 

There was the legendary Giselle, Olga Spessivetseva, who, according to Anton Dolin's autobio (as I recall) said she identified too closely with the story and ended up hospitalized, and then institutionalized for mental illness.  She was considered by her Russian  peers as the greatest of the purely classical dancers.  There is a clip of her on YouTube.  Interestingly, the skirt in Act I is quite short.

 

There's also a beautiful clip of Markova - and the Act I skirt is much longer - as we usually see it.

 

I had the great fortune of seeing Alonso (her signature role) dance this twice - completely spell binding.

Edited by Anjuli_Bai
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should just mention that I'm a relatively new ballet fan. Even though I've packed a lot of ballet-going into my two years of being a fan so far, I'm still very much a newbie and don't often review things. So be gentle. :)

 

Anyway, yesterday was my first trip up the M4 to see RB! :D

 

I had the day to kill in the capital so I took advantage of the £12 tour of the ROH, which was incredible! Ended up catching Christopher Wheeldon rehearsing/creating for A Winter's Tale. I could've stayed watching that all day (the tour guide, Simon, let us stay and watch for 20 minutes I think, thankfully). Even just warming up, the dancers were stood around casually, then would suddenly, nonchalantly, just launch into some of the most beautiful and graceful shapes possible by a human just on a whim to get warmed up or practice the steps. It's quite startling to see up close, and separated from the pomp and grandeur of a full on-stage ballet it had its own special magic. It was unforgettable and I urge anyone in London for the day to book on a tour. Possibly the best £12 I've ever spent on my ballet interest. 

 

Oh, and I walked past Carlos Acosta but only noticed it was him as I was walking out the door at the end of the corridor so I didn't get the chance to say hello or take my photo with him to wind up my friend Katerina who's a massive Carlos fan. Bugger. 

 

Onto the performance in the evening, it was the Lamb/McRae cast, with McRae filling in for Pennefather. As I'm still relatively new to ballet, could someone enlighten me whether they are likely to have done much rehearsal together, or would they have rehearsed only with their scheduled partners? Just curious...

 

Lamb & McRae seemed to be very well suited to each other, with McRae particularly strong in the role and emoting beautifully, particularly during the madness scene. He represented the desperate realisation of what he'd done to Giselle wonderfully. Elsewhere, McRae's dancing was excellent. His leaps were strong without coming across like he was made of rubber, an impression that I've had with other acclaimed male dancers.

 

I've only ever seen Giselle once before, and that was at BRB. Nao Sakuma took the role and she was incredible, emoted spectacularly and made Giselle believable and three-dimensional. For me, and I'm not sure how much this view was shaped by the fact I knew it was her debut in the role, it seemed like Lamb had captured the role very well but had yet to stamp her name on it and make it 100% her own. She was very sweet, but I would've liked to have seen just a hint more Coppelia-esque playfulness in her interpretation in the first act to make her Giselle a bit more rounded. However, the minute the madness scene kicked off, Lamb was all over it. She nailed the transition and her other-worldliness meant that the audience could actually plot the transformation into the Wili-Giselle second by second. And in the second act Lamb was exceptional, her lovely arms arcing into strange ethereal shapes that added to the spookiness of a great second act. At the end of the act 2 PDD, you could've heard a pin drop. On Mars. :)

 

The corps were insanely tight in this, too. Confronted by the regimented ranks of the RB (who I think numbered more than the entire dancing membership of Northern Ballet at one point), I'd have been as terrified as Hilarion! They were bang-on with everything and an absolute credit to the company.

 

Pacing-wise, I had a few issues. Especially in Act 2, there were a few bits that felt rushed and taken at a fair lick just for technical showing-off's sake, and a few places that felt a bit too laconic. But that might just be the choreography. Like I say, it's only my second Giselle!

 

Here's the funny thing, though. Enjoyable though RB's Giselle was, I found myself fondly reminiscing about the one I saw in Birmingham. It might be because theirs was the first time I saw Giselle. It might be because Nao Sakuma was simply awesome in it. It might be because after two years I've found 'my' company and just have a massive soft spot for everything BRB does. Or it might be because the Brum version had a real life horse in it who did a giant poo on the stage within five seconds of appearing. I just don't know. ;)

Edited by BristolBillyBob
  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I share your affection for Birmingham Royal Ballet BristolBillyBob. I never miss a chance to see them when they visit Manchester and I am looking forward to seeing Pagodas next week.

 

The Birmingham company is related to the company in Covent Garden. It was known as the Royal Ballet Touring Company before it moved to the Hippodrome. Several principals danced with both companies before the Touring Company moved to Birmingham. 

 

I enjoyed your review very much.  Everyone has his favourite Giselle and we all appreciate it in different ways.   I can't take wilis seriously but I love the dancing in the second Act in the way as well as the drama of the first.

 

I look forward to your future contributions, 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Me too :)

 

As for your question about how long Lamb and McRae would have had to rehearse together, I guess that would depend on how long Pennefather's injury has been known about. McRae would presumably have been rehearsing solely with Marquez before that. He and Lamb do dance together now and then, but to my mind she's just a bit too tall and leggy to be ideal for him: something I was also reminded of with Osipova and Acosta, when I was worried that if he held her slightly too low a foot might drag on the floor or something.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This discussion of whether Giselle killed herself, and a possible version where Hilarion is still alive at the end, set me thinking:- A new, 3 act version of Giselle.

In Act 1, same as RB to begin with, but when Giselle goes mad it's mad with anger and she kills Loys/Albrecht.

Act 2, trial scene, Giselle tried for murder, found guilty, and executed (poison? hanging? off stage?) and so buried in unconsecrated ground.

So to Act 3, except it's Hilarion Giselle's spirit realises she loved all along and she saves him (Gives Hilarion some more good dancing to do!)

 

(May be this should be moved to a new thread?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see Matthew Bourne doing a 'revised' version, possibly set in a psychiatric hospital. My husband and son saw a Hamlet (I think that it was Hamlet) at one of the Vic theatres a couple of years ago and it was set in a psychiatric hospital with the members of the audience as patients as well as the actors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BBB, that poor horse - he must have been so nervous that he was taken short!  Since the evidence was not something that could be discreetly booted off stage by a dancer, you'll have to tell us how it was dealt with.

 

I think it's the same horse that they have used since this version was introduced, so it was probably being mischievous!  It doesn't tour by the way.  They don't have the dogs now.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

BBB, that poor horse - he must have been so nervous that he was taken short!  Since the evidence was not something that could be discreetly booted off stage by a dancer, you'll have to tell us how it was dealt with.

 

It was brilliant.

 

The horse, Crystal, trotted calmly onto stage looking all magnificent and regal. I'd been prepared for her appearance as I'd seen her talked about on Twitter, but those who hadn't had advance warning let out an audible gasp of approval. Just as I was thinking "Huh, that's weird. Don't horses normally only stick their tails up in the air like that when they're about to...", Crystal made her audacious bid to steal the scene. I felt quite bad for Céline Gittens and Marion Tait who were busy at the front having a good ol' natter through the medium of ballet mime, but literally no one was paying them any attention at all - all eyes were firmly fixed upon both Crystal's helpful attempt to add authenticity to the village scene and the feet of any poor dancer whose choreography took them within a metre of the danger zone. After a few minutes, one of the corps came on with a giant shovel to clear the problem as inconspicuously as possible, to the relief no doubt of all the dancers. So it all ended fairly innocuously in the end.

 

At the time I presumed it was probably just the call of nature at a particularly inopportune moment, or perhaps the effect of stage fright. Now, however, I have some reason to believe it might have been a deliberate move on Crystal's part. I've just noticed she does't get a credit on the cast sheet.  :D

Edited by BristolBillyBob
  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Act 3 Of Giselle Rediscovered...

http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/news/330.html

 

Oh good, Bruce, you've spotted that one already.  I was thinking I might have to go off and hunt for it.

 

The 2nd act of Mats Ek's version is set in a psychiatric hospital, isn't it? (Never seen it.)

 

Yes, or at least the last part of it - can't remember if it's the entire act.  That's the production Tamara Rojo was so keen to get the RB to do.  Not quite so convinced that the male principals would have been :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A further aspect of this scene which I recall reading somewhere is that when Giselle first picks up the sword she does so by its point rather than the hilt and proceeds to draw it in a circle around herself indicating at one moment that she thinks she is holding a snake. The bystanders all recoil rather than trying to intervene because she has drawn a circle around herself with a reverse cross - the hilt - a procedure that has power in witchcraft and creates a line which they dare not cross.

I remember seeing Peter Wright coaching Roberta Marquez in rehearsal once and he drew her attention to the way Giselle looks at the hilt of Albrecht's sword as she holds it and sees it as a symbol of the cross.  He said she would hold the cross in religious awe and as a good daughter of the church would not commit suicide.  I don't think he actually said her death was accidental/due to natural causes but I always thought the RB production suggested she had bad health (possibly TB, then known as consumption and responsible for many literary and theactrical deaths) and this is why her mother is so protective and anxious to stop her from over exertion by dancing.

 

Another theory I read somewhere suggested that Giselle is already pregnant by Hilarion and only her mother knows.  Not anxious to be forced to marry her brutish lover when her pregnancy can no longer be concealed, she invests far too much emotionally in her relationship with the courteous and apparently more civilised Albrecht.  Hence the over-reaction when her only hope is revealed as a two-timing love rat.

 

Must admit I rather like Bruce's missing 3 act version.  It sounds just like the sort of OTT thing the Bolshoi do with great conviction.

 

Linda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There have been some comments here about tempi in the current Giselle production. I sit directly over the orchestra, and it is clear to see that Gruzin spends long periods with his gaze locked on the orchestra and not lookng at the dancers. He checks for obvious showpieces, like Albrecht's series of entrechats, but for many other important moments he does not look at the stage.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...