Giselle

Maina Gielgud’s production of Giselle takes the stage at The Boston Opera House for the first time to open the Company’s season. When Giselle was last presented, critics raved and The Boston Globe wrote, “This is a ‘Giselle’ that stays with you long after you leave the theatre. You’ll be chilled to the bone, but also warmed to the heart.” Set to Adolfe Adam’s score, Giselle is the most poetic of all nineteenth-century full-length works. Giselle, choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, received its triumphant world premiere in Paris on June 28, 1841 and soon became an international success. The ballet underwent a dramatic transformation when Marius Petipa staged the ballet in Russia twice in the 1880s and again in 1899. It is Petipa’s Giselle that has served as a model for most twentieth-century productions.