Petite_Arabesque Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 I've decided to see Giselle this year at the Met. But I'm having a hard time deciding what cast to see. So I'd like all your opinions as to who has the best/ most emotional/ not cheesily dramatic interpretation. Link to comment
Swanilda Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 If you can get a Ferri performance, grab it. Otherwise, Julie Kent is lovely. (As are they all, of course, but these would be my picks!) Link to comment
drb Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 I've decided to see Giselle this year at the Met. But I'm having a hard time deciding what cast to see. So I'd like all your opinions as to who has the best/ most emotional/ not cheesily dramatic interpretation. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Having seen Vishneva's with Corella last summer, that's a pretty sure choice. Although, given her special emotional relationship with Vladimir Malakhov, that could be a deep one also. [Ferri is not dancing Giselle this season.] Link to comment
atm711 Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Go with the Vishneva... Link to comment
richard53dog Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Go with the Vishneva... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I would say the same, with a Vishneva/Malakhov combo. The chemistry is SO important. I wasn't overwhelmed by the Vishneva/Corella pairing last Summer. Vishneva was very exciting, Corella was also very exciting but I also saw a Kent Bocca pairing. While Kent does not have the incredible magnetism that Vishneva has for me, the Kent/Bocca performance is the one that really sucked me in. It must have been tough for Vishneva who also had a partner change in Swan Lake Richard Link to comment
beck_hen Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 Last year I went to four Giselles: Kent, Vishneva, McKerrow and Reyes. The best, in my view, was Amanda McKerrow's retirement performance with Ethan Stiefel. But Kent and Vishneva were also very good—you wouldn't feel that you'd "missed out" after seeing either of them, though their interpretations are quite different. Kent takes the "classic" approach. Her Giselle is fragile, virginal, and transparent—her inner strength and maturity are revealed through tragedy. Kent's broken-hearted innocence is convincing, but McKerrow's was even more genuine, and there were many finely realized details in the first act worked out between McKerrow and Stiefel. The pairing really does matter. It has become the fashion to play Albrecht as thoughtless but well-meaning. Corella is a heedless, impetuous youth. This may be the right approach for him, but I prefer Stiefel's interpretation of Albrecht. He and McKerrow did not meet as equals: he is obviously more experienced and cynical, and her innocence refreshes his jaded palate. They become equals in the second act through her newfound strength and forgiveness and his deepening emotional understanding and repentance. I found their reading the most dramatic because their characters grew and changed the most. The Reyes/Stiefel pairing could recreate this dynamic. Her Giselle is still a work-in-progress, a little bit generic and muted. Pairing her with Corella didn't work to her advantage (as pairing her with Cornejo often does not) because together they seemed too sunny and childish to bear the weight of the tragedy. She does have the ability to be more than cute though. Her reading of Gulnare in Le Corsaire last year blew me away. Her dancing was perfect and she managed to make dramatic sense of it! She completely overshadowed Julie Kent's Medora, and kept pace with Bocca, Corella and Carreno. So I will probably try her again to see how she develops. I thought Vishneva had a very full-blooded approach to Act I. She plays it a bit like Juliet—a rebellious teenager who can't resist tasting the forbidden fruit. She knows the relationship with Albrecht is problematic but blazes ahead anyway. She loves to dance past her limits; her body and mind literally give out on her in the mad scene. Her second act was my favorite—she was passionate, mournful, and magisterial. I don't mean to make her first act sound completely out of place or tradition, and I am not sure that everyone saw it the way I did. She was John Rockwell's favorite Giselle. She does have the ballerina authority required in spades, which probably helps her in the second act and hurts her in the first. I have already bought a ticket to Vishneva/Malakhov. I have never seen him dance and would like to before he retires. I would like to see Gomes as Albrecht, even though Herrera is not a favorite of mine. I haven't liked Carreno's chemistry with anyone since Susan Jaffe... sigh. Now that was a retirement performance: with Bocca as a rough, insistent Hilarion, the best I've ever seen, and Corella as Wilfrid... Link to comment
Giselle05 Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 With no Ferri/Bocca Giselle, I'm going to see Vishneva with Malakhov, and Reyes with Bocca, because I'm curious to see her Giselle but mostly because Julio is retiring... Last year I saw Kent with Bocca and thought Kent was beautiful, especially in the First Act..I think I wrote my impressions of it in the ABT Giselle MET '05 thread. Link to comment
trantran Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 Best Giselle. Alessandra Ferri for me. Trantran Link to comment
Guest Poohtunia Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Giselle speaks on so many levels that it is nearly impossible for one artist to capture all aspects of her spirit. I’ve seen each of this season’s principals in this role, and recommend all of them with the caution that each is vastly different in color and emphasis. With the exception of the Vishneva performances, all are very much a team effort with the overall performance outcome as much depending, happily, on the strengths of Albrecht and Myrta as on Giselle. Vishneva’s performance is pretty much a stand back, one woman show. In short, see Giselle on a continuing basis. Link to comment
nysusan Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Giselle speaks on so many levels that it is nearly impossible for one artist to capture all aspects of her spirit. I’ve seen each of this season’s principals in this role, and recommend all of them with the caution that each is vastly different in color and emphasis. With the exception of the Vishneva performances, all are very much a team effort with the overall performance outcome as much depending, happily, on the strengths of Albrecht and Myrta as on Giselle. Vishneva’s performance is pretty much a stand back, one woman show. In short, see Giselle on a continuing basis. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Poohtunia, you said it all. I have seen a few truly great Giselles who had it all, or enough so you didn't notice anything missing. Fonteyn, Fracci, Makarova, Kirkland, Ferri for sure. Maybe Semenyaka & McKerrow. I missed Vishneva last season, and hers is the only ABT Giselle I'm going to see this year. Kent & Reyes will not disappoint, they are both lovely but IMO neither one gave a performance for the ages last season. Someday I'd like to see what Hererra and Dvorovenko can do with the role - but not when the Kirov's Giselle is a mere 3 1/2 hour train ride away. I'm going to catch the Vishneva/Malakhov cast and then catch Amtrak. Link to comment
Andre Yew Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 Someday I'd like to see what Hererra and Dvorovenko can do with the role - but not when the Kirov's Giselle is a mere 3 1/2 hour train ride away. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> When ABT visited SoCal last year, I saw Herrara's Giselle. It was by far the worst Giselle I had ever seen, and it wasn't just her, though her sullen, joyless, careless performance was pretty bad --- the whole company, except for Gomes and Abrera, seemed to have fallen apart on their last day. I'm also planning my June around the Kirov's performances (mostly the Forsythe instead of the Giselles) in DC, and am considering going to NYC afterwards to see Vishneva's Giselle, if there are any tickets left. --Andre Link to comment
Helene Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Pootunia, a belated welcome to Ballet Talk! Thank you for a great first post, and we'd be very happy if you'd tell us a little bit about yourself in the Welcome Forum. Link to comment
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