Birmingham Royal Ballet bring haunting Giselle performance to Hippodrome - review with pictures
This production of GIselle is everything you could desire from a classical ballet - a balm for the senses from start to finish.
Villainous lost love, retribution and selflessness are at the heart of the tale, played out on a story-book set, with a perfect score and visions of tulle and gauze.
Close your eyes and imagine a peasant village - crooked woodsheds, tiny-windowed cottages, harvest celebrations, a waterfall in the distance - and you have them before you.
The dancing is fast and joyous with stand-out performances by all principals, especially Momoko Hirata in the title role and Cesar Morales as cheating lover Count Albrecht.
Their strength, lightness and interpretation is captivating and the chorus with its quick-fire repetitions is dazzling.
The arrival of the hunting party and the revelation that Giselle’s beau Albrecht is already engaged to Bathilde changes the tempo of the tale.
The haughty rival’s entrance on top of a real-live horse - a rather stage-struck grey - heralds a bleakness to proceedings as the mood slides from folksy merriment to bared secrets, desperation and tragedy.
On hearing her beloved is pledged to another, Giselle is overcome with grief and kills herself with a sword.
The second act sees the village’s autumnal hues swapped for the monochrome web of an old churchyard, as young girls, jilted before their weddings craving justice, dance in eerie white veils, reminiscent of a group of ethereal Miss Havershams.
Again, the soloists are superb as smitten Giselle tries to save her hero from the fate of dancing himself to his death - if only she can do so by midnight.
The chorus is outstanding as is the music from the company’s Royal Ballet Sinfonia. No twists on a theme, no shocks, but a beautiful, timeless production.
Giselle finishes on Saturday, September 28.
