Giselle

There are not many important and famous ballets of the classical and romantic era that our company does not have in its repertoire. The pinnacle of ballet romanticism, Giselle, is without exaggeration one of the cornerstones of the DNA of ballet literature. In 1841, the premiere of the new ballet Giselle took place in Paris and was such a huge success that within a decade it appeared on all the major stages of the ballet world of that time. The theme was provided by the German poet Heinrich Heine in his collection De l’Allemagne. The story of girls who died of betrayed love before their wedding and now cannot find peace in their graves was taken up by Théophile Gautier, a great theorist of romantic theatre and librettist Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. The captivating, lovely and melodic music, filled with French charm, was created by A. CH. Adam. The first performer of the fragile Giselle was one of the greatest dancers of Romanticism, Carlotta Grisi, for whom this ballet was created by choreographers Jean Corrali and Jules Perrot. In the Czech lands, Giselle gained popularity among the audience only slowly. It only reached the Brno stage in the late 1960s, when it was first performed there by choreographer Miroslav Kůra (1968). The audience will certainly remember Jiří Blažek's 1983 grand prix production with the unforgettable ethereal ballerina Soňa Zejdová and later Jana Kosíková in the title role.