Product Description

Perhaps the most celebrated ballet of the Romantic era, Adolphe Adam's intoxicating ballet Giselle is the dramatic story of a peasant girl whose betrayal by her aristocratic lover causes her to go mad before dying and returning as a ghost. Featuring the fabulous Alina Cojocaru in the title role and Johan Kobborg as a torn Count Albrecht, Peter Wright's sparkling production and John Macfarlane's pastoral designs create an opulent feast for the eyes, here captured in High Definition video and true surround sound.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18071 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-01
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Synopsis
Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg star in this gorgeous production of Adam's romantic ballet about a country girl who must destroy the man she loves. Performed at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London in January 2006.

Review
'Cojocaru's interpretation, everyone seems to agree, is one of the greatest of all time, and she continues to refine it with every performance One of the things which makes Cojocaru so poignant in this role is a quality that one senses in the dancer herself. Something in the emotional charge of her performances, some fragility beneath the ballerina steel, emphasises the ephemeral nature of the art form. It reminds us that we must seize the day.' --The Observer

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!
This is a wonderful performance of "Giselle." Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg dance and act wonderfully and help make the ballet's fundamental dramatic point of love and forgiveness very well.

Alina Cojocaru is a perfect Giselle. Her acting is subtle and real, and her Giselle is so vulnerable, trusting and gentle. She is not wild in her "mad scene" but simply broken-hearted, and later, as a ghost, her Giselle loses her girlishness and becomes a tender woman, still in love with Albrecht, still willing to save and forgive him in spite of all. But it is her dancing that makes this version so beautiful. During the first act, she seems to just float around on the air, and as a ghost she seems weightless.

Johan Kobborg also made a wonderful Albrecht, and his dancing is clean and precise. He continually lifts Alina as if she is made of nothing during the second act, helping us believe she really was nothing more than a ghost. He portrays Albrecht as someone genuinely smitten with Giselle, but pursuing her without thinking ahead or remembering his responsibilities. By the second act, though, he seems to be genuinely lost, repenting, and mournfully dancing with her until dawn. And as the curtain fell, I felt that Giselle's forgiveness has brought about a kind of healing for him as well as redemption. I felt he had truly repented, Johan's Albrecht, at the ballet's close.

Marianela Nuñez was cold and cruel as Myrtha, and her dancing was beautiful, graceful and measured. Martin Harvey was also great as Hilarion. Myrtha's two main attendants, danced by Deidre Chapman and Isabel McMeekan, were great and Sandra Conley and Genesia Rosato were also good as Berthe (Giselle's mother), and Bathilde.

Finally, the corps de ballet were wonderful. The peasants' dances, in the first act, and the dances of the wilis, in the second act, were wonderful to behold and shows how strong the Royal Ballet's corps de ballet is. The wilis' dancing was especially haunting, dramatic and beautiful.

Glorious Giselle
This is the production of Giselle by which all others should be judged,there could never be a better choice for the main part than Alina Cojocaru,in act one she dances divinely and makes you believe that she is an innocent and very naive young girl smitten by her hero,then suddenly puts on the face of a stricken girl falling into madness(superbly done),so much so that you feel her grief.Jump forward and her reappearance (from the grave)is nothing short of stupendous,and as a ghost she dances as if she were a feather,but she is not alone,Myrtha(Marianela Nunez)Queen of the ghosts is a fantastic evil presence who's dance is a show stealer in its own right,and there's even more for you in the shape of Deidre Chapman,Isobel Meekan and never forget Genesia Rosato(a talented and beautiful dancer).The male parts are equally well portrayed with Johan Kobborg as Albrecht giving a marvelous rendition his dance(and mime)are fantastic,but my heart goes out to Hilerion(Martin Harvey)who did nothing wrong other than being madly in an unrequited love and trying to show Albrecht for what he is.So as the story ends Giselle protects her love(albrecht)and saves his life while forgiving him for her own death,truly a sad but beautiful ballet,with a wonderful story.
I am glad this recording is done at Covent Garden(ROH)by the best ballet company in the world,you would have to name every one on stage to give fair credit where due,so suffice to say from corps to principal all were GREAT,the costumes were very good as was the scenery,Peter Wright's choreography is fantastic(as expected)and the music was of the highest calibre under conductor Boris Gruzin.
This DVD is worth its weight in gold and not to be missed by all ballet lovers,I'd say get it and get it NOW.*****

A Giselle of exception
Adolphe Adam wrote the music for this Romantic libretto (Saint-Georges and T.Gautier)and choreographers Perrot and Coralli created this 2 act ballet for Carlotta Grisi,in 1841.She had been his pupil,and having become his mistress, gave him a daughter,in 1837.They were never to marry.Later on,Coralli would say that he alone had choreographed it...!
One of the most celebrated ballets ,perhaps the best known and represented one,suffered various revisions - Marius Petipa,as in the present Giselle, (he was the elder brother to Lucien Petipa who had also been the first Albrecht),Nureyev,Grigorovich,etc., but never lost its luminous aura with the ingredients so dear to Romanticism(Death,the Night ,Fate ,doomed Love and Madness (Walter Scott,Goëthe,etc).
Every ballerina's dream(as in last year poignant documentary on a "corps de ballet" dancer - Véronique Doisneau),has been the glory of several dancers such as Essler, Chauviré, Karsavina, Spessivtseva, Fracci,Ulanova,Markova...
This said,romanian Alina Cojocaru,star of the Royal Ballet,brings it a new life.There are two Giselles in this 2 act ballet:In Act 1,Giselle is an innocent,"naïf" peasant girl ,full of joy ,who tragically finds a treacherous love and dies.In Act 2 she belongs to the world of the dead,integrating the legion of the Wilis( cruel,translucent virgins ),confined to the magic of the night,under Myrtha's command - their queen.
The gracefulness of this portrayed 17 year-old and moving Giselle is completely brought out by this lovely ,highly gifted ballerina.But it is in the complexity of Act 2 choreography that Cojocaru makes all the difference:Slow movements,an extremely beautiful "developpée" (Zakharova's is slightly more impressive ,at la Scala,but totally absorved in her refined technique,expressing in the face either a smile of joy or a rictus of grief throughout the whole performance,thus forgetting to bring out Giselle's inner feelings), her arms being a vehicle of expression as important as the leggs (Russian School).
She becomes aethereal ,the perfect illusion of bearing no weight as a spirit would,on "pointes" or when lifted by Kohborg.Her splendid techique,used with intelligence makes this Giselle deserving to be remembered along with the best ones.Kohborg is a wonderful Albrecht ( his variation beautifully executed) Marianela Nuñez a haughty ,convincing Myrtha and Marin Harvey a very good Hilarion.The "corps" bears the recognised quality of The Royal Ballet,live from Covent Garden,Boris Cruzin conducting with "panache".A most brilliant event.