Sheila Chisholm
GISELLE, or Giselle Ou Les Wilis, as originally titled, ties alongside Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as ballet lovers most favourite classical ballet. Set to Adolphe Adam’s music and choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, this romantic ballet premiered in Paris in 1841 with Italian-born ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle partnered by Lucien Petipa as Albrecht.
Right from its first performance Giselle proved a winner. It is also the last remaining romantic era ballet to have survived (virtually) unchanged for nearly 175 years. That is a long time. So wherein lies Giselle’s success? That’s difficult to answer, because no one factor can be factored into what it is that year upon year attracts audiences to attend Giselle performances.
However, one contributing component is Adolphe Adam’s melodic score which musically carries the Gautier/Saint-Georges libretto along. Others are the beautiful costumes; sets; atmospheric lighting; glorious choreography and rich emotional content.
In two-acts the first concerns Giselle – a young peasant girl and her love for Albrecht – a disguised nobleman. A woodsman Hilarian, who is in love with Giselle, discovers Albrecht’s deception and when he divulges Albrecht’s secret, Giselle loses her mind and dies. The second act weaves around Heinrich Heine’s poem De l’Allemagne and the legend concerning Wilis – maidens who die before marriage and who rise from their graves at night to destroy any man foolish enough to wander into their glade.
Until Giselle, ballets emphasised male dominance and physique. Coralli and Perrot changed that. Although question marks hang over Perrot’s choreographic contribution, the choreography lifted the female dancer to a place of honour. In fact, to a large extent, the male dancer was side-lined to the ballerina’s acting and technical skills. It really is on her that Giselle’s magic rests. So, it is to be expected every ballerina worthy of their plies, considers this role “a career prize above others.”
Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB), together with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Graham Scott’s baton at selected performances, presents four alternate casts as Giselle at Artscape Opera House. These dancers are Hikaru Kobayashi – a Royal Ballet first soloist; CTCB senior principal Laura Bosenberg; principal dancer Angela Hansford and senior artist Claire Spector. Respectively their Albrecht is Royal Ballet principal Federico Bonelli; CTCB senior principal Thomas Thorne; principal Daniel Szybkowski and soloist Jesse Milligan.
In turn each Giselle was asked “do you agree Giselle is every ballerina’s dream role? If so why and why is Odette/Odile not every dancers goal?
Said Kobayashi “Yes, I would agree that Giselle is the ballerina’s dream role. Although I think Sleeping Beauty is technically more demanding What is difficult is Giselle’s second act when I must no longer move as a human, but as the supernatural Wili. That in itself is a technical test. I have been fortunate to have had former Royal Ballet principal Lesley Collier and international coach Olga Evreinoff coach me for this role. As much as I admire Natalia Makarova, Carla Fracci and Evelyn Hart’s interpretations, I like to think I bring to my reading, my own life’s experiences.”
Bosenberg said “Odette/Odile is indeed very exacting. But as characterisations they are more technical than emotional/acting parts. Not that Giselle is technically easy. Goodness! Those hops sur les pointe in the first act and that adage in the second are taxing in the extreme. But as this is my fourth Giselle season, I am less concerned with technicalities than with crafting a portrait of Giselle that sincerely runs through her a whole gamut of emotions. Its this emotional/acting range that makes Giselle “my dream role.”
Bosenberg sees Giselle as a frail cosseted peasant girl going about her daily activities until falling for the “charming, good-looking” Albrecht. Until then her life had been so uncomplicated, that when she realizes Albrecht has betrayed her, she goes mad. As for Hilarian, until angrily parting Giselle from Albrecht, he had never made his feelings known. This added to her distress, bewilderment and ultimate death. “With so much to express in so short a time its helps to perform to Adam’s beautifully expressive music... it carries me along with it. However, for all the acting skills I need to draw on in the first act, it is the second act which I love performing for its lyricism, romance and supernatural qualities.”
Spector, making her Giselle debut, “can’t quite believe her dream has come true. Since I first saw Giselle I’ve wanted to dance the role (Carla Fracci is my ideal). Although not height specific standing at 1.7m I always considered myself too tall for Giselle so it came as a thrill to be chosen to dance two performances.”
As a part-time UNISA psychology student, Spector has dug deeply into Giselle’s psyche. “I am fascinated by Giselle’s many-sided facets. I believe she is totally innocent, inexperienced in the political intrigues of the court. I place Giselle in her early teens with her love for Albrecht as absolute as any teenagers first love. While he seems intrigued by my youthful playfulness he is unaware how intense my love for him is.”
Coached by Tracy Li, Spector loves Giselle’s early joyousness and finds the “mad-scene” makes considerable inroads into her emotional acting skills. However, it’s the controlled adage and creating a lyrical floating effect of Giselle, the Wili, where Spector feels most challenged.
Angela Hansford who has danced Myrtha, Queen of the Wili’s is also making her Giselle debut. For much the same reasons as Kobayashi, Bosenberg and Spector, Hansford agrees that Giselle is the ballerina’s dream role. She sees Giselle as carefree, completely the opposite of Myrtha who is cold and without compassion.
“I think of Giselle, not as a character I’m trying to portray, but the real me. Falling in love and having your heart broken is something most girls can relate to. Being deceived by the person you love can make one feel utterly lost and bewildered. I portray these emotions by recalling them. I can’t chose between which act I prefer... they are both so different. I lie awake at night going over every step, phrase and emotion so my interpretation can be totally personal to me.
Those are the thoughts of Kobayashi, Bosenberg, Spector and Hansford who dance Giselle when CTCB presents this two-act ballet masterpiece at Artscape Opera from September 25 until October 4.
While music, choreography, decor, sets and lighting remain constant at every performance, these four ballerinas interpretations will be unique. Do see each one.
l Tickets: R100 to R350, 021 421 7695, 0861 915 8000.