Giselle is one of the first and most beautiful French romantic ballets. It was based on a story, very popular at that time, about a commoner deceived by an aristocrat who dies and comes from the other world to her unfaithful lover in the form of a fantastic creature (Dargomyzhsky's operas Mermaid and Lortzing's Ondine deal with the same theme). But the unfading glory of the ballet was ensured not so much by the fashionable motif of the romantic dual world, but by the way it was embodied by the authors.
Giselle owes its birth to the famous Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi, and even the history of the creation of this ballet masterpiece is like a fascinating novel. The poet Theophile Gautier, captivated by the charming Italian, in collaboration with Henri de Saint-Georges and Jean Coralli writes the libretto of Giselle. Adolphe Adam, who adored ballerinas, creates an incredibly subtle and spiritual, with bright portrait characteristics and a through development of a musical score. But the main participant in this creative union is the choreographer Jules Perrot. A student of the famous "god of dance" Auguste Vestris, he becomes a mentor to the young Carlotta and composes for her the choreographic text of the part of the title character. This role absorbed all the innovations of the rapidly developing dance that reached the highest degree of virtuosity. No wonder it is to this day the dream party of all prim.
In the era of romanticism, the art of ballet was proclaimed the art of flight. And Perrault, who adopted the legendary technique of elevation from his teacher Vestris, teaches it to his talented students Maria Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi. It was then that the ballerinas confidently climb to pointe shoes, which allows them to reliably transform into magical creatures of unearthly origin.
The staged story of Giselle also resembles the vicissitudes of the novel. The original version of the ballet, which triumphantly outperformed the best theaters, was established in the Mariinsky repertoire thanks to Marius Petipa, the brother of the premiere Count Albert, Lucien Petipa. It was Petipa, with his cult of feminine beauty on stage, where the prima ballerina shone in the corps de ballet like a precious diamond in a setting, who was able to preserve the Carlotta Grisi-inspired version of Perrault. Lost at the beginning of the 20th century at home, this version "returned" to Paris, conquering everyone with Anna Pavlova in the title role. And at present, it is the Mariinsky Giselle that is considered a reference and serves as a model for other theaters.
