Sweet and Sour

Adolphe Adam's 'Giselle',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Adolphe Adam's Giselle is a well-known example of French Romantic ballet with a pleasant score and a rather short duration but with many opportunities for acrobatic dancing. It is one of the Teatro dell'Opera's very few repertory pieces where, since 1911, the company has had nearly twenty-five staging and half-a-dozen of different productions. The current staging (sets and costumes) has been shown for the last ten years (for five-to-seven performances each 'season') often to a 'sold out' theatre. The last presentation was at the open air summer festival at the Baths of Caracalla [Very Juicy -- Summer Opera in Rome, 13 August 2012]. In a proper theatre, the production can be better appreciated both visually and musically. I was at the opening night (9 February 2013) of the current round of performances.

Giselle has a sweet-and-sour plot: the unlucky love between a prince and a peasant and their final triumph in the afterworld. There is a ghostly atmosphere, especially in the second part -- set in a graveyard on a bleak and dark night. But French ghosts (girls betrayed by their lovers) appear sweet and elegant as compared to their scary German counterparts of the same period.

The score is full of sentimental love and has a delicate imprint. The stage sets are simple but smart -- it was an excellent idea to use those prepared by the late Anna Anni, the favorite designer of directors such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli) -- they are at least twenty-five years old but have aged very well. The choreographer is Patrice Bart who produced Giselle at La Scala in 1966 (ie forty-seven years ago) and still in the Milan theatre repertory; it is not as acrobatic (especially for the lead male dancer) as those often performed by Rudolf Nureyev, but has the right sweet-and-sour flavor of the fairy tale. The musical direction was entrusted to David Garforth, very well-known also in France and in the UK for his special touch on French romantic music.

The Teatro dell'Opera was able to obtain two major stars for the two key roles: Svetlana Zakharova and Friedemann Vogel. The other dancers and the corps de ballet did quite well, especially Gaia Straccamore and Giuseppe Martelletta.

The audience was enchanted.