Curious about what is the synopsis of Giselle before you go to a performance? Below you'll find a summary of Giselle, Act I and II, and what inspired the storyline of Giselle.
It will come as no surprise to you that I enjoy a good cultural outing—theater, museum, dance, art gallery, historical site. I have been slowly trying to work my way through seeing performances of the classic ballet canon and last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of see a performance of The National Ballet of Canada’s Giselle.
While some ballets have obvious literary origins, consider Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, I found myself down a research rabbit hole about the story of Giselle. I knew my Gothic-lovin’ heart would enjoy this ballet (vengeful ghosts of unmarried women who make men dance to their death? Sign me up!), and diving into how it came about enriched my enjoyment of it.
And I hope it will for you too! Alongside a summary of the story of the Giselle ballet, I’m also sharing the literary influences that inspired this Romantic ballet.
Act I: Poetry in Motion
Created by French librettists Théophile Gautier, writer and literary critic, and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, playwright, Giselle was first performed in Paris in 1841. The music was composed by Adolphe Adam who is also the musical creator of the well-known Christmas song Oh Holy Night.
Divided into two acts, the story of Giselle is set in a small German town. Giselle, a young girl who loves to dance, has fallen in love with Albrecht, a nobleman who has disguised himself as a villager. Peasant Hilarion, also in love with Giselle, believes Albrecht is not who he seems. Ignoring Hilarion, Giselle dances with Albrecht until her mother puts an end to the pas de deux, fearing that dancing too much would lead to her daughter’s death. And here is where out literary references begin!
Gautier was inspired by Victor Hugo’s (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Les Misérables) poem Fantômes which appeared in his 1829 collection titled Les Orientales. The poem is translated to English as Phantoms and you can read the translated text here on page 60. The poem is filled with beautiful imagery and in stanza three we are introduced to a 15-year-old girl who loves to dance at balls. However, after one breathtaking fête she leaves without her cloak and succumbs to a fever brought on by the cold night.
Beauty, innocence, and a delight in dancing from the young girl in the poem is mirrored in Giselle’s story arc in Act I… And so is her demise. As Act I of the ballet comes to a close, a royal hunting party arrives in town and Hilarion revels Albrecht’s identity in front of everyone—including the fact that Albrecht is already engaged to be married (his fiancée is one of the party). Feeling betrayed and in despair, Giselle goes mad and takes her own life.
Act II: Fairytale Beginnings
Act II of Giselle is iconic, taking us into a darker fantasy world, and Hugo’s poem continues to gives us a glimpse of what we can expect:
“Then leads her trembling to the ghastly dance,
Where phantoms whirl in mazes through the
gloom;—
The great pale moon stares down as in a trance,
And the night rainbow, through the sky’s expanse,
Stains the grey clouds that dimly loom.”
We experience the German forest as a mysterious and dangerous place. Giselle’s fresh grave is awash in moonlight when Hilarion enters the scene with his hunting friends and tells them the story of how this specific forest glade is home of the Wilis—spirits of young women who were betrayed by their lovers and died before their wedding. Legend has it that they appear at midnight and lure men to their death by forcing them to dance until they are exhausted and die. An interesting reversal of Hugo’s poem where it is the young woman who dies from ‘excessive’ dancing!
But these Wilis, you may have also seen it as ‘Vila’, are from Slavic fairytales and roughly translates to ‘wind’ or ‘whirlwind’. While they aren’t always malicious forces, they are presented as nymph-like and associated with nature (check out this 1847 painting by French artist Hugues Merle). And while Gautier might have seen the spark of the idea in Hugo’s poem, we do know he pulled from German writer Heinrich Heine's description of the Wilis in De l'Allemagne (1834). The following quote sums up most of the action in Act II of the ballet:
“There is a tradition of nocturnal dancing known in Slav countries under the name of Wili. The Wilis are affianced maidens who have died before their wedding-day; those poor young creatures cannot rest peacefully in their graves. In their hearts which have ceased to throb, in their dead feet, there still remains that passion for dancing which they could not satisfy during life; and at midnight they rise up and gather in bands on the highway and woe betide the young man who meets them, for he must dance until he drops dead” (Nebel 89).
But the ballet is not without a romantic twist! Hilarion falls victim to the Wilis and it seems like Albrecht will be next when he arrives at Giselle’s grave to plead for forgiveness. Albrecht and Giselle are forced to dance until they are exhausted. However, knowing that the power of the Wilis is destroyed by daylight, Giselle manages to protect Albrecht until dawn. Saved by love, this frees both Giselle’s spirit and Albrecht from the control of the Wilis.
“The Ballerina’s Hamlet”
The program notes for the performance I attended made mention that Giselle is “the ballerina’s Hamlet” and I was curious as to this literary comparison. Hugo does makes a link for us by calling his maiden “like Ophelia” in Fantômes. Coming off my recent read of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Bills, I began thinking about how each work is named after the titular character who undergoes a transformation into madness, are betrayed by those they love, and each story ends with their death. Plus, we get restless spirits in both.
A little more research brough me greater insight as I (obviously) haven’t performed either role, but the technical skill required to transform into Hamlet or dance Giselle seems to be equated in the world of performance. Both characters are sought after roles that are complicated and demanding for artists to perform, providing a kind of stamp of approval for their craft:
“The role [of Giselle] is coveted by ballerinas. It requires stamina, technique, stylistic sensitivity and the dramatic ability to transform convincingly from mortal to ghost. No wonder the role is often called the ballerina’s Hamlet” (Crabb).
I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience seeing Giselle performed! While the second half was my favourite of the two, I had anticipated the music would also be darker/moodier though it wasn’t. Now that I am much more familiar with the story I am interested to see Giselle performed by different companies for comparison. Is this a ballet you’ve seen or hope to see? When it comes to seeing a performance, do you enjoy knowing the story before you go in?