Blu-ray Sale - Up to 40% off

Choreographer: Marius Petipa

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.

Bonus material:

Illustrated synopsis & cast gallery.

‘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

Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players.

PICTURE FORMAT: 1080i

LENGTH: 113 Mins

SOUND: 2.0 & 5.0 PCM

SUBTITLES: FR/DE/ES/IT

Giselle, with choreography by Marius Petipa, (after Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot) is the most celebrated ballet of the romantic era, and a perennial favourite that continues to move audiences all around the world, with its combination of dramatic acting, virtuous technique and ethereal beauty. This new production is by Rachel Beaujean, Head of Artistic Staff of the Dutch National Ballet and former ballerina, and Ricardo Bustamante, Assistant Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet and formerly principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Both have danced principal roles in Giselle, Beaujean as Myrtha and Bustamante as Albrecht, and they have brought their passion for this ballet to this new production. They have based their Giselle on the original version by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, but have added new choreography and a fresh view of the story.

The atmospheric sets and costumes for this new production are by Toer van Schayk, who sets the ballet at the end of the eighteenth century, predating the time of the original premiere. Van Schayk has designed many of the Dutch National Ballet’s most successful productions including Nutcracker & Mouse King and Romeo and Juliet.

The cast includes Russian ballerina Anna Tsygankova as Giselle (a rising star formerly of the Bolshoi Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet and Vienna State Opera), and Jozef Varga as Albrecht (formerly of the Czech Ballet and Zurich Ballet).

Adolphe Adam’s score is performed live by Holland Symfonia conducted by Boris Gruzin.

Dutch National Ballet’s new production of Giselle was recorded in February 2009 at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam in High Definition and Surround Sound.

BONUS MATERIAL:

Bonus material includes interviews with:

Anna Tsygankova – Giselle

Jozef Varga – Albrecht

Igone de Jongh – Myrtha

Jan Zerer – Hilarion

Rachel Beaujean & Ricardo Bustamante – production and additional choreography

Dutch National Ballet is a truly international company. Many of its dancers appear regularly with the major dance companies of the world, including The Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, San Francisco Ballet etc. The company is renowned for its artistic flair, the exceptional technical ability of its dancers, and its ability to switch between modern and classical works with ease.

Choreography by JEAN CORALLI & JULES PERROT

Choreographic restaging by MARIUS PETIPA

Adapted by PATRICE BART & EUGÈNE POLYAKOV

Arthaus presents Giselle, a classical ballet, which, with all its splendour and grace, is generally regarded as the apotheosis of the Romantic ballet.

The work premiered in the Salle de la rue Le Peletier at the Paris Opéra in 1841 and is considered the first major plot-based ballet to have survived to the modern day with its original choreography almost intact. In the course of the past century and a half Giselle has undergone only a few changes, e.g. by Marius Petipa, who revised the work for his 1887 production at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.

The performance recorded on this DVD is based on the St Petersburg version and was choreographed by Patrice Bart and Eugène Polyakov, two out-and-out Petipa specialists. The scenery is the work of Alexandre Benois from 1924; originally designed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, it heralded the re-emergence on Western programmes of the long absent Giselle and to this day it remains the benchmark for traditionalist stagings of this ballet.

The production was marked by an all-stars cast: Laëtitia Pujol dances the title role, combining her flawless technical skill with a fully developed sense of grace. Nicolas Le Riche, one of international ballet’s most respected stars, created her male counterpart, Albrecht, whose faithlessness drives her insane. Le Riche is famous all over the world for his elegant strength, the beauty of his expression and the musicality of his movements.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Running Time: 111 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

The Bolshoi Ballet troupe in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of the romantic masterpiece 'Giselle', at last available in HD. 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. Learning that Albrecht, her beloved, is in fact a nobleman engaged to be married to a princess, the naive peasant girl Giselle dies. The Queen of the Wilis – the spirits of deceased young virgins– decides that Albrecht should follow Giselle to the grave, and condemns him to dance until he dies of exhaustion. But Giselle’s spirit dances with him and saves him. Composer Adolphe Adam owes his reputation to this archetypal, richly melodic Romantic ballet. As Giselle, Svetlana Lunkina is simply sensational. Her Albrecht is the iconically noble dancer Dmitri Gudanov. And the cast is perfectly rounded off by Maria Allash as the Queen of the Wilis. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Pavel Klinichev.

Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa

Choreographic version Yuri Grigorovich

Designer Simon Virsaladze