Giselle from Rome

[volcanohunter]

Carla Fracci's production of Giselle, performed by the Rome Opera Ballet, is available on the Rai Play site. With Susanna Salvi as Giselle, Michele Satriano as Albrecht, Alessandra Amato as Myrtha and Claudio Cocino as Hilarion.

Sign-in is required, but there doesn't appear to be a geoblock.

https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/giselleteatrodelloperadiroma2022

 

[volcanohunter]

Some time after this video was posted, a geoblock was added, but it is easily circumvented with a VPN.

Fracci's production has plenty of peculiarities, including a prologue featuring Albrecht, Bathilde and her father, and the second act beginning with the entire court following Albrecht into the forest (but unlike Hilarion and Albrecht, they appear to remain unmolested by the wilis). The resulting reordering of the music is frequently jarring, not least the interruption of the mad scene, when Giselle retreats into her house to retrieve a wedding veil. The wilis' fugue is included, though the choreography is not especially interesting, and at the ballet’s end Bathilde comes to Albrecht, but he pushes her away - which feels emotionally and dramatically true in the moment.

Comparisons with the video from the Polish National Ballet are inevitable, and in most respects I found Susanna Salvi superior to Chinara Alizade. Salvi is not a spectacular technician, but her jumps were lighter and easier, her adagio smoother and more sustained, her style pure and unmannered, her acting persuasive, and she didn't fudge with the music. Michele Satriano was not elegant or aristocratic, but he performed more demanding choreography than Vladimir Yaroshenko, including 33 entrechat-six. My only prior exposure to the Rome Opera Ballet in Giselle was when its corps supplemented a production in Naples, and here it looked stronger than it had then. Only Alessandra Amato let the side down.

[California]

3 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Fracci's production has plenty of peculiarities, including a prologue featuring Albrecht, Bathilde and her father, and the second act beginning with the entire court following Albrecht into the forest (but unlike Hilarion and Albrecht, they appear to remain unmolested by the wilis). The resulting reordering of the music is frequently jarring, not least the interruption of the mad scene, when Giselle retreats into her house to retrieve a wedding veil. The wilis' fugue is included, though the choreography is not especially interesting, and at the ballet’s end Bathilde comes to Albrecht, but he pushes her away - which feels emotionally and dramatically true in the moment.

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting. Is there any information about the historical sourcing for Fracci's version or who was involved in the staging?

The choreography by Ratmansky for the Wilis' fugue is wonderful. He said in an interview that there is no record of what the original looked like, so it's Ratmansky's own.  He also noted that the entrechat sequence was not in the original, so perhaps the Fracci version wasn't striving for historical accuracy.

Ratmansky's choreography for the fugue starts at 3:50:

 

[volcanohunter]

Perhaps there was an explanatory article in the program, but there was nothing like that in the link for the stream. The choreography is credited to Fracci after Coralli, Perrot, Petipa and Dolin. Julio Bocca and Gillian Whittingham are listed as the repetiteurs. My guess is that Fracci wasn't aiming at a reconstruction, but expanded some sections because she thought the ballet needed it.

She begins with the overture, which after its bombastic opening goes directly into her prologue using the music that announces the arrival of the hunting party in Act 1. After that the pastoral part of the overture resumes and continues into the usual opening of the first act. I don't think the prologue adds anything. The scene between Albrecht and Wilfried explains the situation, and I think it's better if the audience sees Bathilde for the first time together with the villagers and is as unaware of her significance as Giselle is. When the hunting party arrives, the usual music is repeated.

What Ratmansky, Gielgud and Fracci share is that Albrecht's first-act solo comes after Giselle's variation, even though every recording of the score I've heard places it just before Berthe's entrance, so I assume that's where Adam actually put it. (Things like that never stopped Petipa from rearranging the order of the music.)

In this version Bathilde and the Duke do not retire to rest in Berthe's house, but go back out with the hunting party. Presumably this allows the harvest festival, Giselle's variation and other boisterous stuff to go on without attracting their attention. After the Spesivtseva variation, there is an added duet with Albrecht, a second variation for Giselle, and then Albrecht's solo, his usual duet with Giselle and the coda with the villagers. Giselle shows Albrecht her new necklace at the start of the gallop.

The scene at the beginning of the second act with Albrecht heading out to the forest, followed by Bathilde, her father and a group of courtiers, takes place during the introduction to the second act, before moving on to Hilarion's arrival at the grave. (There are no gamblers.) I guess Fracci didn't want Bathilde appearing out of nowhere at the end, but it does dull the impact of Albrecht's entrance later on.

Personally, I don't care for the 32 entrechat-six. It's more of a trick than dramatically meaningful choreography. But lots of productions include them as though they were canonical.

Edited January 8, 2023 by volcanohunter

[California]

27 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Personally, I don't care for the 32 entrechat-six. It's more of a trick than dramatically meaningful choreography. But lots of productions include them as though they were canonical.

Thanks again - very interesting. I prefer Baryshnikov's flying brises on the diagonal, but that wasn't in the original either. When I asked a (now retired) Russian principal at Colorado Ballet why he prefers the brises, he said he remains under Myrtha's spell heading straight towards her, while the  entrechats would have him turn away from her so the audience could see the full effect. Makes sense to me dramatically. 

[volcanohunter]

I am definitely in the brisé camp.  The speed and directness with which Albrecht moves toward Myrtha underscore how powerless he is to resist her commands.

Edited January 9, 2023 by volcanohunter

[Mashinka]

I detest the entrechats.  Nureyev introduced them.  Some over do the brisés (Panov's were highest widest and fastest)  but they were always in the original.

[California]

16 minutes ago, Mashinka said:

I detest the entrechats.  Nureyev introduced them.  Some over do the brisés (Panov's were highest widest and fastest)  but they were always in the original.

In the Ratmansky reconstruction, neither the brises nor the entrechats are used at that music. Ratmansky in interviews said familiar steps weren't in the original, so he didn't interpolate them. 

See 9:00