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| (Giselle) |
Last
summer, I happened to stumble upon a manga named “Coda” because I was really
bored and I had nothing to do. I decided to read it since I was really curious
and while reading I couldn’t help but laugh at the main character, Kunisada
Haruichi, because he was forced to dress and act like a girl since Yuri Arbatov,
the ballet prince, wouldn’t perform in the show without him dancing the part of
Giselle. (Yes, I know it sound surreal but a boy would be dancing the part of
Giselle) And the reason why Yuri was hesitant in taking another dance partner
was because his last partner got an accident while dancing the pas de deux. And he believed that only Haruichi
can dance the part.
And
this was the reason why I came to know Giselle.
At first, I was really curious
on what Giselle was and after researching I found out that it was a romantic
ballet with two acts: First Act and
Second Act.
The
First Act starts with Giselle, a shy and beautiful peasant, who met Albrecht,
the Duke of Silesia, who is currently disguised as a peasant named Loys.
Albrecht fell in love with Giselle and wishes to marry her but sadly there are
a lot of hindrances to his way to romance. First, he was betrothed to Bathilde,
the princess of Courland, which he would marry on a sooner date. And second, he
is of a high position and marrying a peasant girl would cause a ruckus. And so,
he decided to disguise and ask for the help of his trusted man. He moved to the
village and removed his possession and dressed like a peasant. Then he
introduced himself to Giselle and his mother, Berthe, as Loys. Hilarion, a gamekeeper, and also one of
Giselle’s admirers became jealous of Loys and Giselle’s relationship. He was
also suspicious of Loy’s identity and he vows to himself to find out about
Loy’s identity and to expose him. Even Berthe, Giselle’s mother, was also
suspicious of Loys’ identity and told her daugther to be very careful since she
was protective of Giselle due to her weak heart that causes her to have a poor
body condition.
One morning, Loys’ trusted man returned and
told him to stop the treacherous act of pretending and return to the castle but
Loys refused and told him that he returned to the castle. Until one day, the
sound of hunting horns was heard and in came the Prince of Courland together
with his daughter, Bathilde, the betrothed wife of Albrecht. The prince and
princess were welcome with joyous festive, refreshments and several dances.
Princess Bathilde got interested with Giselle’s shy and sweet nature and
offered her necklace to Giselle. Though, the joyous festive was interrupted
with Hilarion’s abrupt entrance while carrying Albrecht’s sword and declare
that Loys was actually not a peasant but is actually of high standing. Loys
entered the festive and Bathilde was shocked because she recognized him as
Albrecht, the Duke of Silesia, and her betrothed husband. Giselle was overcome
with grief and sadness and so she took the sword from Hilarion’s hands and
stabbed herself in the heart. Giselle died in her mother’s arms.
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| (Wilis) |
The
second act starts with Hilarion mourning over Giselle’s grave but was suddenly
got scared over the Wilis, the spirits of women who were abandoned on their
wedding day. The Wilis were led by their queen, Martha, who haunt the night and
forces man who came upon their sight to dance all night until they die of
exhaustion. Queen Martha uses her magic on Giselle’s grave and turns her into a
wilis. Albrecht who also turns up on Giselle’s grave and mourns on it was
surprised to see Giselle above her grave in her wilis form. Albrecht begs for
his forgiveness and Giselle forgives him as she went into the forest to join
her other mates. Albrecht followed her in desperation while Hilarion was forced
by the other wilis to dance and he died from exhaustion. His body was thrown
into the river and Albrecht was also forced to dance but Giselle pleads for
Martha, queen of the wilis, to spare Albrecht. But Martha coldly refused and
Albrecht was forced to dance but Giselle’s love broke through the wilis magic
and saves Albrecht life. The other wilis return to their grave due to sunrise
and Giselle bade Albrecht farewell leaving Albrecht alone and Giselle rests in
peace.
For those who still want to know
more about Giselle, Giselle is a romantic ballet piece made by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier. Gautier got the idea of Giselle
from Heinrich Heine’s description of Wilis in De l’ Allemagne as inspiration
for Act II and from Victor Hugo’s “Fantômes” since the verse is about a fifteen-year old
Spanish girl who loves to dance and she became too warm in a ball and died of a
chill in the cold morning. Gautier thought that it would make a good ballet
story and proceeded to make one but he was not satisfied of the outcome and
asked for the help of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, who had written a lot of ballet librettos.
And then after writing the story it was brought to Léon Pillet, the
director of Paris Opera and asked Carlotta Grisi if she approved and Grisi
approved.
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| (Giselle and Albrecht) |
Overall, Giselle is a really
beautiful masterpiece and one that I would really recommend watching. Even though
I am not fond of ballet and I couldn’t help but fall in love with Giselle.
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