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Your Favorite Pairing In Giselle (live And On Film)

fandeballet

By fandeballet
in Everything Else Ballet

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fandeballet

fandeballet

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My favorite duo in Giselle was Misha and Natalia M. (Van Hamel was Myrta and/Peredes was Hilarion?). That particular performance, thankfully, is now available for future generations to watch. It was/is out of this world! :) What are your favorite Giselle, filmed or seen live, that today is melded into your memory banks?

Edited by fandeballet
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Mme. Hermine

Mme. Hermine

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Are you saying that there is a DVD available of this performance? I did a search and didn't find anything. If there is a DVD available, could you please give details...I would love to see it! :)

It was out on VHS at one time but I don't think it's been released on DVD.

Edited by pmeja
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nysusan

nysusan

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Are you saying that there is a DVD available of this performance? I did a search and didn't find anything. If there is a DVD available, could you please give details...I would love to see it! :)

It was out on VHS at one time but I don't think it's been released on DVD.

The VHS has been out of print for ages, and no DVD yet. But the recording does exist so we can hope that there will be a DVD someday. Every once in awhile you can find a used copy on ebay but they typically cost $60 - $120 or so. Big bucks for a grainy VHS

Back to the question at hand - Giselle is one of those ballets for which I couldn't even name a favorite, I've seen so many wonderful pairings.

fandeballet - Misha & Makarova were definitely a favorite pair of mine, but so were Misha and Gelsy in the same time frame. And, as much as I loved them I also loved Fonteyn/ Nureyev, Fracci/Bruhn and more recently - Ferri/Bocca and McKerrow/ Steifel

I have rarely ever seen a film or video version that compares to a live performance but there is one I cherish on an out of print VHS series called "Russian Ballet, The Glorious Tradition" . Volume 3 includes (among many other treasures) the 2nd act pas de deux by Maximova and Gordeev. It is my favorite filmed version, I even prefer it to the Makarova/Baryshnikov tape. She is so light, so grave & beautiful that you really believe she is a spirit, and it never fails to move me.

I'm (finally) going to catch Vishneva with Malakhov this spring, and I'm also going to see a few of the Kirov's performances in DC in June. So I may have some new favorites to add to the list soon!

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Paul Parish

Paul Parish

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I sure wish I'd seen Kirkland. She was right for that role, in so manyways. Thank God for the film of Maximova. And Bessmertnova, who was out of this world.

The most poetic couple I've seen live were Cubans, Lorna Feijoo and whoever her partner was. She was perfect in both acts, a plausible country girl with maybe some noble blood on the wrong side of the blanket. What I'll never forget was the lightness and airiness of her jump, and how when she was still,she was SO still.

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bart

bart

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I actually enjoyed Makarova and Nagy more than Makarova and Baryshnikov.

Nagy was the kind of partner who was so much in the service of his ballerina that he became her extension but kept you looking at him as well.

He made his partners look wonderful. In many ways, from the ballerina's point of view at least, he must have been an ideal partner.

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Helene

Helene

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The most poetic couple I've seen live were Cubans, Lorna Feijoo and whoever her partner was. She was perfect in both acts, a plausible country girl with maybe some noble blood on the wrong side of the blanket. What I'll never forget was the lightness and airiness of her jump, and how when she was still,she was SO still.

You beat me to it, Paul! I loved Lorna Feijoo. Oscar Torrado was her partner when I saw Balllet Nacional de Cuba on their 1999 tour, if I'm reading my handwriting correctly.

I agree with klingsor and bart about Nagy. I loved Nagy and Markarova in everything they did, and except for Other Dances, which I think was past his time, also preferred her with Nagy. I wish Nagy had been dancing for the later generations. Not to disparage Torrado, but a partner like Nagy comes along once in a lifetime.

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atm711

atm711

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And Bessmertnova, who was out of this world.

Hmmm...this surprises me. Perhaps I have been too cavalier in dismissing most of what I have seen her perform. During the 70's I saw her Phyrigia to Vasiliev's Spartacus and it is still one of the most memorable performances I have seen. However, I shall go back to see what I may have been missing in her Giselle.

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kfw

kfw

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Even though I've only seen the Act II pas de deux (on one of the Nina Aniashvili videos), the Giselle who really sticks in my mind is Rose Gad of the Royal Danish Ballet - I believe she was dancing with Alexander Kolpin?

Katrina, Gad and Kolpin dance a La Syphide pas de deux on that DVD. I remember that as very beautiful, despite a few messy landings on his part. The Giselle excerpt there, which also moved me, is by Irma Nioradze and Yury Posokhov.

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Helene

Helene

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I actually enjoyed Makarova and Nagy more than Makarova and Baryshnikov.

I was lucky to have seen Makarova and Nagy at my second live ballet performance. Bart describes Nagy perfectly:

Nagy was the kind of partner who was so much in the service of his ballerina that he became her extension but kept you looking at him as well.

He made his partners look wonderful. In many ways, from the ballerina's point of view at least, he must have been an ideal partner.

The Giselle excerpt there, which also moved me, is by Irma Nioradze and Yury Posokhov.

Is that the same Yuri Possokhov who is retiring from San Francisco Ballet this summer, during the New York tour?

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leonid17

leonid17

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I think Giselle performances raise a lot of passions amongst ballet connoiseurs. I have know people who saw Pavlova, Karsavina, Spessitseva, Markova and Ulanova and discussed with them the merits of those famous dancers performances I personally have seen some twenty five or more dancers essay the role of Giselle and can say that I have been most moved by Fonteyn in the role. My favourite performances however have been of Eva Yevdokimova in London, Nadezhda Pavlova seen in Moscow and supreme above all Yelena Yevtyeva late in her career giving an extraordinary performance given at the Coliseum Theatre in London in the 1980's. I have seen Makarova. Mezentseva and Fracci mentioned as Giselle and I could never see through either their mannerisms or the second mentioned emphatic technique or the thirds lack of technique. Ananiashvilli for me always brought something significant to all the major romantic/classical roles she danced. Bruhn as Albrect was impeccable, Nureyev's had the most ardour and on occasion danced

wonderfully well in his role. Nagy was always a true artist and perfect cavalier for me but lacked, the brilliance of tecnique I expected in Act II. Baryshnikov, possibly possessing the purest and most beautiful technical execution of any male dancer I have seen, has never convinced me in any role. I have missed mentioning some other performers who either moved me or astounded me with their technique but ultimately do not count for me as great performers as either Giselle or Albrecht.

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bart

bart

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I personally have seen some twenty five or more dancers essay the role of Giselle and can say that I have been most moved by Fonteyn in the role.

I am thrilled to hear you say this, leonid. I regret that I never had this opportunity to see Fonteyn in this role. Richard53dog also mentions Fonteyn -- with

Nureyev

Could you tell us something about what it was in Fonteyn's performance that affected you so strongly? And who was her Albrecht?

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leonid17

leonid17

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I personally have seen some twenty five or more dancers essay the role of Giselle and can say that I have been most moved by Fonteyn in the role.

I am thrilled to hear you say this, leonid. I regret that I never had this opportunity to see Fonteyn in this role. Richard53dog also mentions Fonteyn -- with

Nureyev

Could you tell us something about what it was in Fonteyn's performance that affected you so strongly? And who was her Albrecht?

As I do not possess the fluency of a dance critic, what a challenge you set me Bart in asking me to describe my response to Fonteyn’s Giselle. What made Fonteyn remarkable for me in this role was that she was able to break down all the prejudices I might have had for a 43 year old dancer portraying a teenage unsophisticated girl and who did not possess the elevation deemed needed to succeed in Act II. I had some years earlier first time seen Giselle on British television performed by Nadia Nerina and Nikolai Fedeyechev. All such prejudices were swept aside from her first entry from the cottage stage left as before my very eyes in a stream of consciousness she became Giselle. If she entranced me, she also entranced the whole of the audience who you could feel were embracing the experience as one. All the thoughts, fears and passions of Giselle, began to unfold as Fonteyn lived the role if it were her own life taking place on the Royal Opera House stage. A flawless characterization was matched by a surety of execution of the steps in a continuous flow of movement. Nothing was separate steps and characterisation were one expression of Giselle’s feelings. As she grows from the timid response to Loys as she first meets him, to the joyful expression in their pas de deux and the then shocking distress when Bathilde appears and tells Giselle she and Albrecht (Loys) are engaged, Fonteyn’s heartbreakingly intense descent into madness seemed a natural consequence, such has been the concentrated realisation of a seemingly real character whose mother had warned of the consequences of celebrating too much happiness.

In Act II Fonteyn created the allusion of weightless flight without great elevation and her quality of ‘stillness’ emphasized her ‘other world’ life. Again, it was her flow of movement arising from her innate musicality, port de bras and balance in arabesques with no separation of technical expression destroying the characterization of her love being strong enough to go beyond the grave. Giselle is ballet that is a romantic drama with an obvious sad ending and Fonteyn grasped the essence of this and played every moment truthfully, touchingly and effectively. Of the Albrecht’s who partnered her, Nureyev made the most emotionally and sensationally effective foil to Fonteyn’s Giselle. Though coming to the RB production from another world of experience, he put a lot of work into their realization of the roles to achieve what I think he knew would be legendary performances. Despite his extraordinary technique in Act II his early performances were marred by some noisy landings, but the passion he invested in this role reflected his consuming passion for dancing and performing to the very edge of his ability. Films of Fonteyn (and not only Fonteyn) do not do justice to the actual theatrical experience of witnessing her dance the role of Giselle.

PS

Shortly after Nureyev had exhibited extraordinary strength and elevation in an extended series of entrechat six in Act II, I witnessed Nadia Nerina emulating(sending up?)his feat by substituting 32 entrechat six for the fouettes in the Black Swan pas de deux

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Kanawha

Kanawha

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I always wished I had been able to see Kirkland & Fracci as Giselle but, alas, I came to ballet too late!

Fracci's video performance with Bruhn is a favorite, as is the Baryshnikov/Makorova version. I join others in begging for the Misha/Natasha version to be distributed on DVD. My VHS tape is getting rather ragged.

As for performances I've attended, I have a wonderful memory of my first live performance of Giselle at Wolf Trap's Filene Center with Marianna Tcherkassky and Fernando Bujones. I can still be moved to tears remembering my reaction to the beauty of the corp when they did the hops on one foot weaving their lines back and forth across the stage. Seeing it from the loge that night took my breath away. That feeling has always stayed with me and was probably what really got me hooked on ballet. Just to add the perfect touch, there was a full moon above the theater that night that made our wooded surroundings seem part of the staging.

Later on, I enjoyed Cynthia Harvey as Act I Giselle but I can't remember who her partners were. My favorite Act II Giselle was Alessandra Ferri and, of course, Julio Bocca as her Albrecht.

More recently, I have really loved Julie Kent and Jose Manuel Carreno. My initial reaction to Julie in Act I is that she's too tall for Giselle but by Act II all I can see is a Giselle whose love comes from such a spiritual place that it will protect her Albrecht from any harm the willis could bring to him. Needless to say, Giselle is my favorite ballet and I hopefully look forward to seeing many more pairings in the years to come. Here's hoping I haven't found my favorites yet.

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nysusan

nysusan

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Leonid, thank you so much for sharing your memories of Fonteyn’s Giselle. I saw her & Nureyev in it once, in the sixties, but it was so long ago and I was so young I really don’t remember many details - just how poignant and heartbreaking she was and how passionate he was. I recall that when we went to see F&N in Romeo & Juliet my grandmother explained that despite Juliet’s youth an older actress was often able to portray her better than a young one. I think this is also true of Fonteyn’s Giselle. Your description of her playing every moment truthfully jogged some fragment of my memory, she really did seem to live the role onstage in her complete melding of dancing and acting. It sounds so simple and obvious, but it’s a very rare quality.

And I also loved Nagy in Giselle, and in everything else he danced

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