Giselle

[MinkusPugni]

Is the Giselle music actually all that great? I think it's nice but not brilliant like Tchaikovsky's or some of Minkus'. I do love the music for Myrtha's apparation though.

People had to add things into Giselle to spice it up a little. Minkus added quite a bit to it (which most of it was later removed) and someone else did. I can't quite remember his name .

I still reckon it's good ballet music but I don't think it's as good as the ballet can be.

[studio company]

I do agree with you....to an extent. I think that the reaction you get from listening to a composer's music is reflected off of the ballet you are watching.

For instance, when you watch the Nutcracker you love the music because you connect it with Christmas time and the joy of imagination. Giselle on the other hand is a powerful ballet, but not very happy.

When you finish watching the Nutcracker you feel happy, therefore you like the music. When you finish watching Giselle you are emotionally drained and sad at the same time. This will cause you to grow a not so fond feeling of the music.

Therefore I feel that the impression of the music is affected by the mood of the ballet at which it is performed to.

[carbro]

As music, I find it insipid. And yet there are passages which carry the action amazingly well. Like the daisy-picking passage, for instance, or the "chill" that chases Hilarion offstage before the Wilis enter.

[DancingPixie]

When you finish watching the Nutcracker you feel happy, therefore you like the music.  When you finish watching Giselle you are emotionally drained and sad at the same time.  This will cause you to grow a not so fond feeling of the music.

Therefore I feel that the impression of the music is affected by the mood of the ballet at which it is performed to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I sort of agree - in that the impression ballet music leaves on you definitely is affected by the mood of the ballet itself. But though swan lake - for example, isn't 'happy', I still love the music. I think that Giselle is a bit of a let down musically - not terrible, but just 'nice' as opposed to wonderful

[MinkusPugni]

I think Swan Lake failed originally because the music was over-dramatic and Petipa couldn't think of choreography that was dramatic enough for the music. Swan Lake is sad and melancholy all the way through, even in the happy bits. Especially after the second act. I think Giselle's music isn't dramatic enough. The Wilis' Fugue with Hilarion is how the music should be all the way through the second act, especially at the end when Albrecht is left in despair. I don't think because Swan Lake's music makes you feel sad you can't like it. I love it. I think Giselle's music isn't sad or dramatic enough - that's why I don't like it. Alot of it doesn't suit the ballet.

[Hans]

I thought that when Petipa revised it, Swan Lake was a success...? It was the original (1877?) production (which Petipa did not choreograph) that failed.

Adam's music for Giselle is not concert music; it is musique dansant(e?). Therefore, it is not meant to be listened to by itself--and frankly, I wouldn't want to do that. However, as musique dansant it is perfect IMO.

[Juliet]

I think it is lovely and I listen to it frequently. The only part that I do not care for is the peasant pdd, which I find boring, musically.

In a performance, it is redeemed (sometimes) by the dancing....

Robert Irving's recordings of Giselle and Michael Tilson Thomas' are quite wonderful. I recommend them highly.

I seldom find Giselle affecting, although I have been moved by a few performances, but I do love the music.

[dirac]

I think the Adam score is a fine one for dancing and well made as a ballet, but I must cast my vote with those who find it difficult listening at home. The melodies that sound so poignant accompanied by dancing sound whiny and whimpering without it, etc. Certain ballet scores resemble movie music – they sound wonderful performing their intended function as support for something else, but less so when they have to stand on their own.

[Giselle05]

The music from Giselle is probably my favorite of all ballets! The opening passage, just before the curtain opens always gives me chills

[FauxPas]

At the time "Giselle" premiered in 1840 a lot of ballet scores were patchworks and pastiches. I think Adam's work was considered revolutionary because it was dramatically attuned to the mise-en-scene - almost like a through-composed opera rather than one with recitatives and arias like what Verdi and Wagner achieved later in the century.

The bits of the score that sound like additions to me are all in the first act. One is the little solo that Albrecht has in the first dance with Giselle and the village maidens. The other is Giselle's variation after she has been crowned Queen of the Vineyard or whatever. The one with the hops on pointe. The music is scored differently and the choreography isn't Romantic - it is classical and rather in the style of Petipa. Marius Petipa's fingerprints are all over the Peasant PDD (which also may have some Minkus in it) and a lot of the Wili stuff in the second act. The second act always sounds musically of one piece to me.

[MinkusPugni]

Thanks for all of your opinions guys! Sorry, then I wasn't talking about Petipa's one if he didn't originally stage Swan Lake.

Anyway. I think a fair amount of Adam's Giselle is quite nice (especially the second act) but alot of the second act doesn't suit the ballet. The Sylphs in La Sylphide are supposed to be happy (until the Sylphide dies) but the music is too subdued and therefore doesn't suit the happiness of the Sylphs but the Wilis in Giselle are supposed to be sad and angry. We get happy melodies running throughout the Pas Premiere des Wilis and Myrtha's Apparation. The music can still be buoyant but I think it should stay generally in minor keys. The music in the Pas Premiere and Myrtha's Apparation is wonderful but not suited to the style of Giselle. The Scene et Fugue des Wilis (Hilarion's death) is awesome and is a great part of Giselle. Another part of Giselle that really works is the Entree de Albrecht but I think that should be a dance of the Wilis rather than an entrance.

A part that certainly doesn't work is the bit (I think this is excluded in some productions of Giselle) is after the actual fugue of the Wilis and after then have done their glissade, jete, glissade, jete, step, grand jete en avant, step, grand jete en avant off and have run back in the line when they see Albrecht and are about to kill him and before Giselle saves him, there is a canon for the strings which sounds almost like a wedding piece.

Anyway, this is just my opinion of the ballet which isn't relevent to yours. But it was interesting to see what everyone had to say.