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Diana Vishneva's Giselle.


cubanmiamiboy

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So my friend tells me that he wants to see Giselle in NYC when Vishneva dances. He happens to have seen her recently in France doing Bayadere and loved her so it's been decided...we're going to NYC.

Please...tell me about her Giselle. I have thousands of questions, but I basically need to know the general consensus here. I have faith in you guys, and you know...I don't mess up with Giselle. :thumbsup:

In another level...would it be too soon to book a performance with her based on the current ABT schedule...? Is Vishneva usually reliable...? Is ABT's schedule usually reliable...?

I know...questions and more questions...

Thanks in advance...!

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So my friend tells me that he wants to see Giselle in NYC when Vishneva dances. He happens to have seen her recently in France doing Bayadere and loved her so it's been decided...we're going to NYC.

Please...tell me about her Giselle. I have thousands of questions, but I basically need to know the general consensus here. I have faith in you guys, and you know...I don't mess up with Giselle. :thumbsup:

In another level...would it be too soon to book a performance with her based on the current ABT schedule...? Is Vishneva usually reliable...? Is ABT's schedule usually reliable...?

I know...questions and more questions...

Thanks in advance...!

There are always differences of opinion but the general consensus among all the critics I have read (and my own experience) is that Vishneva's Giselle is one of the greatest to be seen today and one of her greatest roles. I find ABT's casting on the whole reliable, though less so this far out from the season which is a bit of a problem -- and one year I did get tickets for Vishneva and she ended up withdrawing due to injury, a situation which the company was slow to clarify. But her performances have not been casually moved around and I think that barring injury she is reliable. As for thousands of questions...hmm...well, like most really great ballerinas Vishneva is never quite the same from performance to performance. Whether she is to your taste is something you will have to discover!

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There are always differences of opinion but the general consensus among all the critics I have read (and my own experience) is that Vishneva's Giselle is one of the greatest to be seen today and one of her greatest roles. I find ABT's casting on the whole reliable, though less so this far out from the season which is a bit of a problem -- and one year I did get tickets for Vishneva and she ended up withdrawing due to injury, a situation which the company was slow to clarify. But her performances have not been casually moved around and I think that barring injury she is reliable. As for thousands of questions...hmm...well, like most really great ballerinas Vishneva is never quite the same from performance to performance. Whether she is to your taste is something you will have to discover!

Just to add a little to what Drew wrote, I'd agree that Vishneva is , to me, one of the outstanding Giselles dancing the role today. But I also agree that this comes down to a matter of taste and also a matter of which attributes a viewer prizes most.

Vishneva is technically quite strong and well schooled. And she doesn't have the slightly brittle and floppy quality some of her contemporaries, particularly at the MT, have. She dances most of act 2 in a virtuoso manner with a lot of power and sweep.

And she's very expressive as a dancer too, an attribute that is very important to me. Her take on Giselle is a bit different than some of the ones often seen. Her Giselle is a quiet, serious young lady in act 1 who turns into a rather powerful and determined wraith in act 2. Of course Giselle IS the most powerful character in act 2, but this Giselle seems motivated by a lot of anger as well as the more customary love of Albrecht.

As far as the practical concerns, it's too early to buy single tickets, ABT is still selling subscriptions and will be doing so for some months now. I think single tickets for the Met season go on sale late March/early April, I believe someone actually posted the date on the thread concerning the ABT Met season.

But ABT's casting is pretty reliable as far as it can be. And Vishneva is a reliable performer. She's pretty much shown up for me except for 2 years ago where she had a pretty serious injury that sidelined her for many months.

She's also pretty good about logging her schedule on her website. It's too soon for dates so far out but I would guess her ABT dates will show up early in the new year on the schedule shown on her site.

http://vishneva.ru/eng/index.htm

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As far as the practical concerns, it's too early to buy single tickets, ABT is still selling subscriptions and will be doing so for some months now. I think single tickets for the Met season go on sale late March/early April, I believe someone actually posted the date on the thread concerning the ABT Met season.

From the information on the subscription site, it appears single sales begin on Sunday, April 3, but subscribers can buy additional single tickets now. They don't seem to offer a "design-your-own" subscription.

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/subscriptions/abt/packagetypes.aspx

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I love Vishneva's Giselle. As Richard said, it's a little different from the traditional Giselles. Particularly in Act 2, this Giselle is one angry Giselle! She's not hammy, but she has a stern, forbidding expression and maintains a certain aloofness from Albrecht, kind of reminding the audience constantly that this is a ghost. Vishneva is at her best when facing off with Myrtha, you get a sense of the power of wills.

What I particularly remember about Vishneva's Giselle is the inititation scene, when she turns with so much fury (not just speed, but FURY) that you feel she is truly possessed. Later in the ballet she grande jetes and again, with real fury. At the end of the ballet she crosses her arms as Albrehct touches her, as if to say, "I am now truly a ghost."

There are extensive clips of her Giselle on youtube though, as I said, if you're fixed on a certain traditional interpretation of Giselle it might not be for you. But if you want the second act of Giselle to be a hair-raising drama, then Vishneva's Giselle is the experience of a lifetime. Overall (and I say this having watched her in a wide variety of roles live) Giselle is by far her best role. It's the one role where it all comes together, and she's put an individual stamp on this extremely popular, even overdone, ballet.

If you want a clip of what I'm talking about with her initiation here it is:

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Cristian,we were both able to see Gomes with Kent, and loved their interpretation. So, I had a look at the video of Gomes with Vishneva, for comparison. (See below.)

I've only seen Vishneva on video, but her Giselle impresses me enormously. As to tempo, her adagios are enormously, richly slow. Her allegros very fast, intense, always completely etched. She seems to dance on the platform of her enormous physical strength. She does this with great artistry, so the strength is not highlighted.

There's an Act I video on YouTube in which her hops on pointe are so secure that she is able to do wonderful things with her epaulement. Even movements so simple as her (earlier) descents from pointe are striking: clear, strong, hard to forget. (This clip actually comes after you have been allowed to watch Giselle having her first fainting spell.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQubV298HjM

As for Act II, canbelto's point about "fury" is fascinating. I have tended to see this a little differently. As a willi, Vishneva's Giselle is now freed from the limitations of her human body. She is finally free to dance as she could only have dreamed about dancing in her village. The tragic irony is that she has been liberated to be the "strong dancer" she could not be in life at precisely the time when human romantic love and hope have been taken away.

Returning to our shared experience of Giselle this summer: Kent's sacrifice for Albrecht is, to me, at the other end of the expressive spectrum from from Vishneva's. Kent brought tears to my eyes; Vishneva creates a different, more complex set of reactions. Just as rich, but for different reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZShqCfRSvmI&NR=1

I just had an off-the-wall thought. As this particular Giselle becomes loses touch with her memories and emotional attachment to human life and human love, what a Queen of the Willis she would make. Presuming, of course, that the original decides to retire (or gets promoted to a larger cemetery ... or something). :wink:

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Would your friends consider the Kennedy Center in DC in February 8-13? Mariinsky'll be showing their Giselle, and they might bring Vishneva for that. (I personally prefer Mariinsky's Giselle to ABT's). And they'd have a dress rehearsal right before the openning night - just $12.

Vishneva's Gisella is one of my favorite (among Lopatkina's, Pavlenko's, Novikova's). The posters were right about its being different. Her mad sciene is more furious as well.

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Thank you all for your quick responses! I just forwared the whole topic to my friend. :thumbsup:

Would your friends consider the Kennedy Center in DC in February 8-13? Mariinsky'll be showing their Giselle, and they might bring Vishneva for that. (I personally prefer Mariinsky's Giselle to ABT's). And they'd have a dress rehearsal right before the openning night - just $12.

That sounds promising YID but my friend wants to see the MET, and that's another reason for the trip...

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Yes Vishneva's Mad Scene is not really the "pretty dying." She starts by ripping off the necklace and throwing it angrily to the ground. Even though she's extremely petite I think her overall stage persona is not naturally fragile and ethereal, so she's made an interpretation that works for her.

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