Giselle is one of the most frequently performed classical ballets and a cornerstone of the Romantic ballet repertoire since its 1841 Paris premiere.
Key Facts
- World premiere
- 28 June 1841, Salle Le Peletier, Paris
- Original ballerina
- Carlotta Grisi (Italian)
- Composer
- Adolphe Adam
- Original choreographers
- Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot
- Number of acts
- 2
- Literary sources
- Heinrich Heine's De l'Allemagne; Victor Hugo's Les Orientales
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Librettists Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier drew on Heinrich Heine's prose about the Wilis in De l'Allemagne and Victor Hugo's poem 'Fantômes' to craft a story blending Romantic-era themes of betrayal, madness, and supernatural vengeance. Composer Adolphe Adam set the narrative to music, and the role was conceived specifically to introduce Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi to Parisian audiences.
Giselle premiered on 28 June 1841 at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris, performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique. Choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, the two-act ballet follows a peasant girl who dies of heartbreak after being deceived by a disguised nobleman and is then summoned into the vengeful sisterhood of the Wilis, whose love ultimately spares her betrayer.
The ballet achieved immediate popularity and spread rapidly across Europe, Russia, and the United States. The choreography preserved through Marius Petipa's late-19th and early-20th century revivals for the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg became the basis for the version performed today, cementing Giselle as one of the most technically demanding and most frequently staged works in the classical ballet canon.