Giselle, Royal Opera House, London
Heroine lost in a stodgy staging
By Zoe Anderson for The Independent

When I missed Alina Cojocaru's first Giselle, in 2001, I missed an event. The ballet, choreographed by Petipa after Coralli and Perrot, is one of the great ballerina roles. A peasant girl is betrayed by her aristocratic lover, goes mad and dies. Returning as a ghost, she protects him from the wilis - the vengeful spirits of jilted girls who catch men and dance with them until they die. Giselle obviously suits Cojocaru's waif-like physique, dramatic focus and light jump, and she was promoted to principal at the end of that first performance.

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Giselle
By Judith Mackrell for The Guardian


Théophile Gautier, who wrote the original scenario for Giselle, was the most avid ballerina-fancier of his day. He was famously torn between Marie Taglioni's airy jump and Fanny Elssler's supple charms. If he could see the Royal Ballet's current run of Giselles, he would feel similarly spoilt for choice.

Alina Cojocaru's element is the air, and not simply because her jump is so huge and her body so delicately constructed. In act one, her Giselle lives in a state of fever, emotions bubbling intemperately through her dutiful modesty.

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Giselle Royal Opera House London
By Clement Crisp for The Financial Times


Giselle returned to the Royal Opera House on Monday night, looking and sounding somewhat tentative. "Handle with care" it says on the packaging of this masterpiece of romanticism, but the Royal Ballet fudges some important elements. John Macfarlane's designs are excessively bosky, and the First Act is lit throughout as if from the glow of a blast furnace - dawn has come up like thunder and stayed on. The Second Act is not much more subtle, nocturnal mystery equated with murk and sudden searchlight shafts of illumination.

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Giselle
Outstanding performances launch the Royal Ballet's latest revival. By Debra Craine for The Times


THIS is one of those solid Royal Ballet productions that can be counted upon to bring in an audience and bring out the best in the company. Peter Wright’s superior, naturalistic staging does all the right things. It tells the story of Giselle with intelligent, lucid mime and real dramatic flair. It looks terrific, thanks to John Macfarlane’s autumnal forest designs which give vibrant atmosphere to Giselle’s Rhineland home. And it has the power to make you believe in angry ghosts.

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Double-take on deceit
Ismene Brown for The Daily Telegraph reviews Giselle at the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden


Covent Garden can be a thrilling place to attend ballet these days. To have two ballerinas of the calibre of Alina Cojocaru and Tamara Rojo, and two male stars the like of Johan Kobborg and Carlos Acosta, is a luxury any company would envy. With these people, you know the dancing will be superlative. It is their thoughts that you go to experience, to ask questions of life with them through their consummate art, and maybe find some answers.

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Torn between two lovers
Two quite different pairings of principals reveal the complexities of Giselle's tale of betrayed love. By Jann Parry for The Observer

Back in the mid-1980s, when Peter Wright's production of Giselle was first staged, the Royal Ballet had no Giselles. A ballerina crisis (Alessandra Ferri had just left for America) meant that there was no convincing inheritor of the great Romantic ballet role. Now we have five contenders this season, with the first two, Alina Cojocaru and Tamara Rojo, in world class.

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Triumph of the Wilis
The Royal Ballet’s multiple casts deliver a transcendent Giselle says David Dougill for The Sunday Times.


For the latest revival of Giselle at Covent Garden, the Royal Ballet is fielding six different couples in the roles of Giselle and Albrecht, and the first-night cast on Monday was the most popular partnership of the moment, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg. They dance together with an exceptional rapport, ideally attuned technically and emotionally, and this performance was well-nigh faultless.

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Giselle - Royal Opera House
By Clement Crisp for The Financial Times


To the woods once more! The amount of timber on view as the curtain rises on the Royal Ballet's Giselle verges on the unlikely - as unlikely as the lethargic tempi that afflict certain dances in act two. What should have rhythmic pulse and momentum to buoy up the choreography collapses into inertia as the wili Giselle and the repentant Albrecht strike what they hope are romantic poses and wait for the score to free them into movement.

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Giselle
By Gavin Roebuck for The Stage

Love that transcends death is the heart of this Roman-tic ballet, staged with clarity by Peter Wright. Designs by John F Macfarlane, with Jennifer Tipton's lighting, capture the atmosphere of the contrasting human and supernatural worlds.

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