Moscow “Gisels”

Abstract

The author of this article analyses the four recent productions of the ballet “Giselle”at the Bolshoi theatre (1944, 1987, 1997 and 2019). They were produced by the outstanding choreographers Leonid Lavrovsky, Yury Grigorovich, Vladimir Vassiliev and Alexey Ratmansky. Each tried to renew this old ballet in his own way. Particular attention is paid to Ratmansky. Ratmansky has tried to return to the first libretto of this ballet — the one of 1841 — to restore or recompose the important lost fragments — the games, the fugue etc. In his work he used the choreographic notations of the 19th and the early 20th centuries (notes and graphic sketches by Henri Justamant, Pavel Gerdt, Nikolay Sergeyev, archive documents, iso-, photo- and video materials. Ratmansky’s analysis of “Giselle” is given in the context of his previous reconstructions (“Paquita”, “Swan Lake”, “Sleeping Beauty”).