Ballet "Giselle" - a short summary. Libretto

The two-act ballet "Giselle" is a fantastic story created by three librettists - Henri de Saint-Georges, Theophile Gautier, Jean Coralli and composer Adolf Adan, according to legend, which Heinrich Heine recounted.

How was the immortal masterpiece created?

The Paris audience saw the ballet "Giselle" in 1841. It was an era of romanticism, the code in dance performances was taken to include elements of folklore and myths. Music for the ballet was written by composer Adolf Adan. One of the authors of the libretto of the ballet "Giselle" was Theophile Gautier. Together with him, the well-known librettist Jules-Henri Vernois de Saint-Georges and choreographer Jean Coralli worked on the libretto of the ballet "Giselle". He was engaged in staging the play. The ballet "Giselle" does not lose its popularity to this day. The Russian public first saw this story about tragic love in 1884 at the Mariinsky Theater, but with some adjustments made to the production by Marius Petipa for the ballerina M. Gorshenkova performing the Giselle party, which was then replaced by the great Anna Pavlova. In this performance for the ballerina is important not only the choreography skills, but also the dramatic talent, the ability to reincarnation, because the main character in the first act appears a naive girl, then turns into a suffering one, and in the second act becomes a ghost.

Libretto of the ballet "Giselle"

In his book "On Germany" Heinrich Heine wrote the ancient Slavic legend of the vilisses - girls who died from unhappy love and rise from their graves at night to destroy the young men who are wandering in the night, thus they take revenge for their ruined lives. It was this legend that became the basis for the libretto of the ballet "Giselle". The summary of the production: Count Albert and peasant Giselle love each other, but Albert has a bride; The girl learns about this and dies of grief, then becomes a vylis; Albert comes at night to the grave of his beloved and surrounded by vylis, he faces death, but Gisselle protects him from the anger of her friends and he manages to escape.

T. Gautier - the main developer of the libretto, he reworked the Slavic legend for the play "Giselle" (ballet). The content of the production leads the viewer away from the place where this myth originated. All the events the librettist transferred to Thuringia.

Characters of the production

The main character is a peasant girl Giselle, Albert is her lover. Woodward Hilarion (in Russian productions Hans). Bertha is the mother of Giselle. Bride of Albert - Batilda. Wilfried is the squire, the ruler of Vilis is Myrtle. Among the characters - peasants, courtiers, servants, hunters, wilis.

T. Gauthier decided to give the ancient myth a cosmopolitan character, and from his light hand the countries, customs and titles that are not in the original story were included in Giselle (ballet). The content was adjusted, so that the characters were also slightly modified. Albert's main character was the author of the libretto by the Duke of Silesia, and the father of his bride became Duke of Courland.

1 action

Ballet "Giselle", a summary of scenes from 1 to 6

Events take place in a mountain village. Bertha lives with her daughter Giselle in a small house. Nearby in another hut lives Lois - beloved Giselle. The dawn came and the peasants went to work. Meanwhile, the forest ranger Hans, who is in love with the main character, is watching from her secluded place her meeting with Lois, he is tormented by jealousy. Seeing passionate embraces and kisses of lovers, he runs up to them and condemns the girl for such behavior. Lois drives him away. Hans swears to take revenge. Soon there are girlfriends Giselle, along with them she starts dancing. Berta tries to stop these dances, noticing that her daughter's weak heart, fatigue and excitement are dangerous for her life.

Ballet "Giselle", a summary of scenes from 7 to 13

Hans is able to uncover the secret of Lois, who, it turns out, is not a peasant at all, but Duke Albert. The forest warden makes his way to the duke's house and takes his sword to use as evidence of the rival's noble origin. Hans shows Giselle the sword of Albert. The truth is revealed that Albert is a duke and he has a bride. The girl is deceived, she does not believe in Albert's love. Her heart can not stand it and she dies. Albert, distraught with grief, tries to kill himself, but he is not allowed to do so.

2 action

Ballet "Giselle", a summary of scenes from 1 to 6 of 2 acts

After death, Giselle became a Vilis. Hans, tormented by remorse and feeling guilty for Giselle's death, comes to her grave, the visis notice him, turn around in his dance and he falls dead.

The ballet "Giselle", a summary of scenes from 7 to 13 of 2 acts

Albert can not forget his beloved. At night, he comes to her grave. He is surrounded by vylises, among which is Giselle. He tries to hug her, but she's just an elusive shadow. He falls to his knees beside her grave, Gisselle flies up and lets him touch her. Vilis begin to circle Albert in a dance, Gisselle tries to save him, and he remains alive. At dawn, the visis disappear, Giselle disappears, saying goodbye to her beloved forever, but she will always live in his heart.