Giselle Week concluded with another astonishingly beautiful performance by Diana Vishneva, Marcelo Gomes, and Veronika Part.
Tonight's final performance happened to occur exactly 34 years to the day when the historic Makarova/Baryshnikov Giselle was recorded at The Metropolitan Opera House. The cast that night on June 2, 1977 included corps dancers Susan Jones and Victor Barbee who also performed tonight – although perhaps in slightly different roles.
There were no substitutions tonight. Gennadi Saveliev as Hilarion has been fantastic this week. Maria Riccetto and Jared Matthews scored big in the Peasant PdD. Simone Messmer and Zhong-Jing Fang danced Moyna and Zulma. Moyna's costume top was cut way too low in the front and something round and brown made several appearances. Haglund remembers this same problem occurring in a previous year.
What a terrific week it's been. And while we in New York may have just gotten a break in the heat, there'll be no break in the passion: Lady of the Camellias opens next.
The lilies are all important in Giselle, but what would they be without the myrtle? So, Haglund awards the Jimmy Choo Myrtle Pump Bump Award to all the Myrthas this week, because revenge can really be beautiful, too.
2 responses to “ABT – Giselle – 6/2”
This performance utterly destroyed me.
As gorgeous and fantastic as I thought their first outing was, I felt the tiniest bit disappointed. I’m terrible, but I’ve become so incredibly spoiled by their previous performances, that now “superb” is not good enough, when I know they can achieve “mindblowing”! 😉
And that is exactly what this performance was for me. I noticed that they had slowed down the tempo significantly, and this made everything in Act II just look 10 times better. The lifts were held longer, with Marcelo making Diana look like she really was slowly fluttering down to the ground. And the part where Albrecht lifts Giselle and moves her across the stage as she curls up and unfolds into an extended arabesque was simply magnificent. It reminded me so much of their White Swan pas de deux in 2009—so slow, so perfect that I was scared to breathe, lest I disrupt the magic! As you said, slow is soo good!
They must have been exhausted after that performance, and I was very impressed that they could turn around and pull off a fantastic “Lady of the Camellias” barely two days later. But, as you have said, it was the second performance that really drove me to the edge!
This performance utterly destroyed me.
As gorgeous and fantastic as I thought their first outing was, I felt the tiniest bit disappointed. I’m terrible, but I’ve become so incredibly spoiled by their previous performances, that now “superb” is not good enough, when I know they can achieve “mindblowing”! 😉
And that is exactly what this performance was for me. I noticed that they had slowed down the tempo significantly, and this made everything in Act II just look 10 times better. The lifts were held longer, with Marcelo making Diana look like she really was slowly fluttering down to the ground. And the part where Albrecht lifts Giselle and moves her across the stage as she curls up and unfolds into an extended arabesque was simply magnificent. It reminded me so much of their White Swan pas de deux in 2009—so slow, so perfect that I was scared to breathe, lest I disrupt the magic! As you said, slow is soo good!
They must have been exhausted after that performance, and I was very impressed that they could turn around and pull off a fantastic “Lady of the Camellias” barely two days later. But, as you have said, it was the second performance that really drove me to the edge!