Giselle from Warsaw

[volcanohunter]

Starting on December 26 at 9:00 am Eastern, Maina Gielgud's production of Giselle for the Polish National Ballet will be streamed on YouTube. It can be watched on demand until 26 June 2023.

The company streamed rehearsals of the production during World Ballet Day.

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by volcanohunter

[volcanohunter]

The cast for this performance includes Chinara Alizade as Giselle, Vladimir Yaroshenko as Albrecht, Natalia Pasiut as Myrtha, Kristóf Szabó as Hilarion and Mai Kageyama and Diogo de Oliveira in the peasant pas de deux.

https://operavision.eu/performance/giselle

I have very fond memories of the Gielgud production from when it was performed in New York by the Australian Ballet more than 30 years ago. Back then it received pretty much universal acclaim. (But for the life of me I can't remember the name of the guest artist who danced such a sensational Myrtha. Something Irish...)

[volcanohunter]

A little interview with Maina Gielgud about the production. 

[California]

In case anybody forgot, the Polish Giselle is now on YouTube:

 

[volcanohunter]

To be honest, I was surprised the broadcast was given to Alizade. Throughout she jumped low and with obvious effort. Her legs looked beautiful, but surely the lion's share of Giselle's choreography is jumping. I have seen great Giselles with no jump, e.g., Evelyn Hart, but they did everything possible to disguise the fact that they couldn't jump with their port de bras, and they compensated with a great many other things - things Alizade didn't have.

Yaroshenko looked convincingly young to be behaving so thoughtlessly, although I think his expressiveness is hampered by his heavy brow bone: it's hard to see his eyes unless he's looking upward. I also couldn't remember when I'd last seen Albrecht's variation without double cabrioles. Even Ratmansky’s reconstruction includes them.

Szabó came perilously close to being too handsome to play Hilarion. He seemed to be thoroughly agreeable fiancé material.

[volcanohunter]

Also, I thought Mai Kageyama was delightful in the peasant pas de deux.

[naomikage]

On 12/31/2022 at 10:05 AM, volcanohunter said:

Also, I thought Mai Kageyama was delightful in the peasant pas de deux.

I have seen Mai Kageyama as Giselle in Japan a few years ago and she was delicate and fabulous. She also danced Giselle this time and I think you can see a few snippets of her Giselle during the intermission of the performance. (approximately from 56 minutes in the stream)