Mary Skeaping's Giselle makes a welcome return to the Coliseum

It may be more than 50 years old, but Mary Skeaping’s production of Giselle, first performed in 1971 and revived by English National Ballet at the London Coliseum this month, still retains the power to surprise. One of the great theatrical survivors of the Romantic age, Giselle – which tells of a simple village girl who dies of a broken heart after discovering she has been betrayed by her lover, Albrecht, a count disguised as a peasant – is familiar to audiences around the world but, as with many other regularly performed works, it underwent changes and revisions over the years. 

In consequence, what we see today in “traditional” productions may only have a passing resemblance to the work as originally choreographed by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli in Paris in 1841. This major revival, excellently performed by English National Ballet, allows audiences to rediscover anew a ballet they thought they knew inside out, as well as to marvel at its theatricality and beauty all over again. It is performed in pretty, though not distinguished sets and costumes by David Walker.

One of the most remarkable things about this production is how Skeaping attempts to take the ballet as far back to its original source as possible, returning most of Adolphe Adam’s tuneful score to its correct order and restoring many small, yet crucial mime passages that had been cut (just as Alexei Ratmansky has done more recently with his own Giselle). 

Skeaping herself performed in productions of Giselle based on a version by Marius Petipa that were danced in Imperial Russia and mounted for Anna Pavlova and Olga Spessivtseva during the 1920s and 1930s. Drawing on her memories, as well as undertaking a huge amount of historical research, particularly at the Paris Opéra, she has staged a version for the company that feels both serious and “right”. Melodrama is downplayed, as is excessive virtuosity, and the dancers are required to move in a quicker, softer, more “rounded” way, especially with their arms and in their torsos, which makes the ballet seem more authentic.

Watching two performances in quick succession, I was struck forcibly by how the restored mime scenes help explain the story better whilst also emphasising details differently. For example, when Berthe tells Giselle and the villagers of the danger of the Wilis (the ghosts of women jilted by their fiancés who haunt the forest at night, luring any man they come across to dance until he dies) it is as much a warning to the local men as it is to her daughter. It’s no wonder the men gather in frightened groups at the start of the second act when they wander the forest in darkness. Of course, in this act there will later be consequences for the men who do stray into the realm of the Wilis, led by their queen, Myrtha, who summons Giselle from her grave to join their ranks.

As with any great work, Giselle offers challenging roles that allow the principal dancers great scope for individual interpretation. On opening night, 11^th January, both Katja Khaniukova as Giselle and Aitor Arrieta as Albrecht emphasised the youth of their characters. Sweetly naïve and innocent, they were young people in love, but so guileless that Albrecht was completely unaware how disastrous his actions would later prove to be for both Giselle and his fiancée, Bathilde. Arrieta danced with thrilling strength, and was an exemplary partner to his Giselle, but Khaniukova, whilst touchingly shy and affecting, seemed to have trouble with her footwork, which was sketchy and imprecise, especially during the second act. Lovely as she is, perhaps Giselle is not a role to which she is best suited.

At the matinée on 13^th January, the ballet came into even sharper focus. Led by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw, new recruits to the ranks who came, along with English National Ballet’s new director, Aaron Watkin, from Dresden’s Semperoper Ballett, they are highly experienced performers with immense rapport, although both were making their debuts in the production that afternoon. In the first act, Lee, tall and very slim, gave Giselle all the gangling, artless qualities of a fawn, and she really came into her own during the second act, dancing with an astonishing, weightless flow and filigree footwork. Tall and dark, and a marvellously sensitive partner, Haw danced stylishly, presenting Albrecht as a sophisticated, entitled philanderer, annoyed to be caught out in his deception by Bathilde yet full of remorse for Giselle’s death. The pair received an ovation from the audience at the end.

There was also an account of Myrtha that afternoon full of supreme authority from Precious Adams, and excellent support across both performances from Junor Souza and Fabian Reimair as indignant Hilarions (Albrecht's rival), Laura Hussey a warm-hearted fusspot as Berthe, Daniel McCormick a dynamic soloist in the “Peasant” pas de deux, and Stina Quagebeur a charming, thoughtful Bathilde who, like Giselle, is greatly wronged by Albrecht. Above all, its thrilling to see how beautifully English National Ballet is dancing under its new director, and the corps de ballet in Act II were simply glorious. Musically, too, it was good to hear the orchestra, conducted by Gavin Sutherland, give Adam’s score such pace and vitality.