Giselle tournee

programme

love vanquishes death

It is one of the oldest surviving and most often danced ballets in the world: Giselle – sometimes also referred to as 'the Hamlet of ballet'.

Alongside deception, revenge and forgiveness, pure love plays the main role in this production. Count Albrecht, the male protagonist, is sincere in his feelings for Giselle and overwhelmed by her love and beauty. When Giselle dies of a broken heart after discovering that he is already engaged, Albrecht is left behind distraught with grief.

Respect for tradition is at the forefront of this new production by Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante, with sets and costumes by Toer van Schayk. 'The choreography and the composition of the dances are phenomenal. Giselle has no sell-by date. It is timeless, just like the Night Watch', says Rachel Beaujean.
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Buy now the DVD of Giselle!
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‘This new Giselle will last the Dutch National Ballet for many years to come’
- De Telegraaf

‘Giselle is a ballet of immortal beauty, combining a spellbinding story with magical ballet technique’
- Het Financieele Dagblad

reviews

elsevier, april 2012:

Mercurial apparition

Has anybody ever danced such a light and mercurial Giselle? In her interpretation of the famous Romantic role, the Dutch National Ballet’s Siberian ballerina Anna Tsygankova comes close to perfection. In The Amsterdam Music Theatre last weekend, she surpassed herself as the naive peasant girl who falls in love with a prince, is rejected, dies of a broken heart and then returns as a spirit.
> read the reviews

trouw, april 2012:

Anna Tsygankova as Giselle: more, more, more

The new version of the Romantic ballet classic Giselle, which the Dutch National Ballet staged in 2009 and is now reviving, is ‘typically’ Dutch in many respects. This ‘Hamlet of ballet’ has a down-to-earth view of the action, tasteful designs (by Toer van Schaik) without too many kitsch trappings, and an internal logic that everyone can follow. No wonder, then, that this production has also been received exceptionally well abroad and has filled houses once again. This Giselle has struck the right contemporary note without compromising on tradition.
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de telegraaf, april 2012:

Pure Romanticism in beautiful Giselle

Giselle is back in The Amsterdam Music Theatre. This recent production by the Dutch National Ballet will then go on tour the rest of the Netherlands, as well as Sweden and Turkey. For two whole hours, audiences are transported to a Romantic magical world of top quality dance. Toer van Schayk’s sets of a panoramic view of the mountains and a haunting moonlit forest form a fitting backdrop to one of the highlights of the classical repertoire.
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het parool, april 2012:

Love drama full of contrasts

The two great tragic heroines of classical ballet have to be the swan princess in Swan Lake and Giselle. Both of them are doomed in love, and both because of an ungracious lover. In Giselle, Count Albrecht turns out to be engaged to someone else, and Prince Siegfried is not even able to distinguish between the swan princess and her evil look-alike. But whereas certain versions of Swan Lake hold out hope of a happy ending, there is only one possible outcome in Giselle. Giselle must die (literally) of a broken heart and return to earth as a Wili, a female ghost who dances those worthless men to their deaths in turn.
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de groene amsterdammer:

Disregarding gravity

The ballet Giselle is one of the most important works in the history of dance and is the only surviving example of Romanticism besides La Sylphide. This ballet about the ill-fated love between the peasant girl Giselle and Prince Albrecht has been on the repertoire of the big ballet companies more or less continuously since its premiere in Paris in 1841. Principal dancers attempting a convincing portrayal of either Giselle or Albrecht have to follow in the footsteps of such legendary predecessors as Galina Ulanova, Carla Fracci, Natalia Makarova, Vaslav Nijinksy and Rudolf Nureyev.
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nrc handelsblad:

Fantastic dancing and acting from Tsygankova as ‘Giselle’

What would have happened if Count Albrecht had never met the peasant girl Giselle and fallen into the hands of the Wilis – the predatory spirits of girls who have died before marriage? It would in any case have saved almost 170 brainstorms about the first act of Giselle (1841). Although Act 1 is slightly different in all the productions since the original version by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, it still follows the same theme of Albrecht (already engaged to an aristocratic lady) seducing Giselle. She discovers his deception, goes mad and dies. Then follows Act 2, the ballet blanc, which is what we’re really after.
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het parool:

Passion right up to the brink of death

It’s hard to find a more romantic ballet than Giselle. A title heroine who goes mad and dies of a broken heart, love that transcends death, and magical apparitions who dance ungrateful lovers almost literally to their deaths. In short, over an hour and half of passion, deception, revenge and penance.
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de telegraaf:

New Giselle is an add-on diamond

For the first time since 1977, the Dutch National Ballet is presenting a new production of Giselle, one of the few pillars of the Romantic repertoire. The old version by Peter Wright was starting to look its age, although the new one is also rooted firmly in traditional soil.
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de volkskrant:

Night Watch touched up a bit

When the curtain opens on the performance, she finds a red rose on her doorstep. In the second act, creamy white lilies land on her grave. And when the curtain comes down, she receives the biggest bouquet of white roses out of all the dancers. And rightly so. Except for the occasional technical hitch, principal Anna Tsygankova dances an inspired leading role of Giselle in the ballet classic of the same name, which the Dutch National Ballet has taken into its repertoire in a revised version.
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