The Most Romantic Ghost Story of All Time
For all of us who love to watch ballet, here are some lovely links to the beautifully tragic romantic ballet, Giselle, that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Whether you feel like being cozy in your PJ’s or dressing up like it’s a fancy night out, we hope you love it!Â
The Story of Giselle
Act I
Giselle is a beautiful peasant maid with a love of dance and a weak heart. Duke Albrecht of Silesia is enchanted by her, and disguises himself as a peasent during the village wine festival.
Though at first Giselle resists his advances, he pledges his eternal love to her. However, he has already betrayed her. This is made clear with the arrival of a hunting party, where we meet the Duke of Courland and his beautiful daughter Princess Bathilde, to whom Albrecht is engaged.
Bathilde is beguiled with Giselle’s youthful innocence. When Giselle tells the princess that she is engaged, Bathilde gives her a necklace, neither realizing that they are betrothed to the same man.
Albrecht’s duplicity is discovered by the gamekeeper, Hilarion, who is also in love with Giselle, and a much better match according to Giselle’s protective Mother, who worries about Giselle dancing and hear weak heart. When jealous Hilarion tells of Albrecht’s disguise. Devastated Giselle goes mad, and dies.
Act II
Deep in the forest lies Giselle’s grave. She has become a Wili. The wilis are the ghosts of innocent girls who have died betrayed by their faithless lovers on the eve of their weddings.
Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, finds Hilarion beside Giselle’s grave. She calls upon the rest of the wilis who haunt the forest, coaxing wanderers to dance with them until they die from exhaustion before the dawn. Such is Hilarion’s fate, and by dawn he has died.
Giselle’s grave is next visited by a sorrowful Albrecht. Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, commands Giselle to come from her grave and entice Albrecht to dance with her to his death. Giselle dances with Albrecht all night, as the Wilis only have their dark power at night, if she can keep him alive until dawn’s first light, they will not be able to kill him. Giselle helps Albrecht live until dawn.
Giselle’s apparation dissapears back into her grave, and Albrecht is left alone and heartbroken.
Full Length Productions to Watch from Home!
LIBRETTO by T. Gautier and J. Saint-Georges CHOREOGRAPHIC VERSION by Konstantin Ivanov. Premiere – July 6, 2011 CAST GISELLE – Mikhaylova Kristina ALBERT – Starikov Roman HANS, VILLAGE GAMEKEEPER – Vasiliev Artem BERTHE, GISELLE’S MOTHER – Nikolaeva Tatiana DUKE, ALBERT’S FATHER – Saraikin Ilya BATHILDE, ALBERT’S FIANCEE – Novozhilova Alla WILFRID, ALBERT’S SQUIRE – Novikov Maksim MYRTHA, THE QUEEN OF THE WILIS – Sergeeva Svetlana The Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Alexander Andrianov.
Bolshoi Ballet, Performance of Giselle
Royal Danish Ballet’s performance of Giselle
You Might Also Like…
No Equipment Pilates Mat Core Workout
Enjoy a no equipment core workout all on the Pilates mat with no equipment. It’s the perfect boost. The Fittbe Apps 6 minutes a day offers a serious boost to your overall health and fitness! Enjoy this session, and for FULL workouts and coaching from Kiira...
Healthy Granola Bar Recipe
Ingredients/Shopping List 2 cups oatmeal 1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed ½ wheat germ, or flax seed 1 cup sliced almonds 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 2/3 cup honey (You can also use maple syrup, but we find the honey really holds them together) 1/4 cup lightly...
Blueberry Spinach Smoothie
Lately, we have been trying to “eat the rainbow” everyday! Focusing on healthy food choices and eating as many fruits and veggies as possible. This smoothie contains all the colors, Red berries, Orange zest, Yellow banana and mango, green spinach, and Blueberries! Not...
10 Ways to Maximize your Productivity: Getting More out of Each Day
We all want to be more efficient, right? Time is limited and if we could achieve and check off our “to do’s” with laser focus, we’d feel great. We’d be able to take that momentum forward toward more achievements where justified and most importantly, we’d be able to...
Stretches to do at your desk!
Let tension go with stretches you can do at your desk! Standing quad stretch both sides: Just take your hand and pull your lower leg in toward your body. If you aren’t quite feeling it, you can pull your hip forward a bit. Tricep arm stretch: bring your elbow to...
How to Destress
Everyone needs to take a moment to destress sometimes. Actually, as often as possible! Here are 5 ways to de stress and reset!
Essential Oils for the Christmas Season
Essential oils are a great way to get into the holiday spirit! Enjoy the smell of evergreens apple cider, and more with you favorite diffuser and oils pack!
Healthy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
These chewy and healthy oatmeal cookies are an all time favorite! They don’t have much butter, and we completely avoided refined sugar. Three cheers for that! If soft and chewy and warm with cinnamon is your jam, then we hope you will give these a try. If...
Halloween Activities: Fun, Festive and Cozy
Halloween can be a fun and cozy, festive day! Here are some enjoyable activities to get you in the “spirt!” How to have a fun and festive Halloween! Healthy Baking! Something Pumpkin, perhaps!Walk in the leaves or nature walk Put up orange twinkle...
How to make your run more fun and stay motivated!
Trying to get into running, but not feeling the motivation every moment of the day? Spoiler alert – none of us feel like hitting the pavement all the time. That’s even true for die hard runners? That said, we have a few tips to help you look forward to lacing...
