Guest
Sergei Polunin and Diana Vishneva in Giselle. Original performance April 20, 2014 at STANMUS. (This recording is from the TV premiere broadcast on January 8th, 2024 on the Russian Culture channel.) Ballet by Adolphe Adam. Production by the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. Conductor Anton Grishanin. (Russia, 2014) Characters and performers: Giselle - Diana Vishneva, Count Albert - Sergei Polunin, Berta - Kadriya Amirova, Bathilda - Ksenia Pokrovskaya, Duke - Ivan Mikhalev, Wilfried - Alexander Seleznev, Hans - Sergey Manuilov, Mirta - Oksana Kardash. The ballet ’Giselle’ (full name ’Giselle, or Vilisa’) was created in the era of romanticism and became the brightest example of ballet art of the second half of the 19th century. The plot is based on an old legend about girls who died from unhappy love and turned into magical Vilis creatures. At night they lure young people and force them to literally dance to death, thus avenging their ruined lives. One of the authors of the libretto, the French writer Théophile Gautier, heard this story as presented by the German poet Heinrich Heine. Together with the playwright Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, he composed a plot for the ballet production in a matter of days. And composer Adolphe Adam wrote the score in three weeks . The ballet premiered in 1841 at the Paris National Opera and was a huge success. A year later, Giselle was staged on the stage of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (at that time the Bolshoi or Stone Theater), as well as in London, Marseille, Vienna and other European cities . More than 180 years have passed since the first production, and all this time the ballet has not left the world’s best stages. In 2014, it was staged at the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. For performance The main roles were invited to the stars of the Russian ballet - Diana Vishneva (Giselle) and Sergei Polunin (Count Albert), who lived this fantastic story in their own way: subtly, gracefully, dramatically. The audience greeted this “Giselle” with a standing ovation.
