show category: ballet

A performance supported by the ,,Simona Noja” Cultural Society

Ballet in two acts on libretto by Téophile Gautier & Jules-Henri Saint-Georges, based on a slavic story found in Heinrich Heine’s album About Germany

Recommended Age: 5+

Giselle is not just the best known title within the french composer Adolphe Adam’s oeuvre, but also a significant work for the Romantic period. The theme of impossible love between mortals and supernatural creatures lays at the basis of the slavic legend of the Wilis (young brides-to-be who have died before the wedding), adapted by Heinrich Heine. The idea was subsequently taken over by the novelist, poet and critic Théophile Gautier; he created the story of a girl who, after the betrayal of her lover, dyes from a heart-attack and then returns as a spirit to save him form the Wilis’ revenge; this is actually the fact that will prevent her own transformation.

The proposition of such a scenery by Gautier came in tune with the desire of the Paris Opera’s managing board to give the famous italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi the main role in a new choreographic production. Just a few months later, the librettist Saint-Georges and Adolphe Adam created one of the most fascinating ballet in the history of the genre.

After the premiere of the ballet (June 28 1841) at Paris Opera, having Carlotta Grisi and Lucien Petipa (Marius Petipa’s brother) as main characters, Giselle met, through the years, significant stagings everywhere in Europe. We are waiting for you to discover it, this time, in a performance featuring the soloists, the orchestra and the ballet ensemble of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca!

The performance has one break and ends around 8.30 p.m.