Saturday, December 5, 2009

Memory of Giselle

In the same year that I discovered Coppelia I also learnt to know Giselle. This ballet, which has lately become a favourite of the whole world, was pushed into the background at the time. It was shown very seldom and ballerinas tried to avoid appearing in the main part. I saw Giselle quite by accident at a matinee in 1885. The star part was danced by no great star but by a bony, clumsy, ugly and rather tall ballerina, who was however quite a good technician. The audience was not enthusiastic, the auditorium was half empty, and the performance was probably merely a manoeuvre to satisfy a respected but not attractive dancer. The decor was old and faded, the costumes haphazard. I wandered into the theatre alone, not out of curiosity but because of nothing better to do. The spectacle, however, proved to be one of great significance for me; in fact it so overwhelmed me that from that day I became a propagandist for Giselle. Later, in conversations with theatre managers, I insisted that it should be repeated, and when young Anna Pavlova appeared on the scene my dream was to see her in that part. At last I managed to persuade Diaghilev that the ballet should be included in the second season of our performances in Paris (with my decors and costumes) and with Pavlova. Actually it all happened quite differently. We did put on Giselle, but Pavlova, lured by a more favourable offer, refused to dance at the last moment and Karsavina took her place. However neither we nor the ballet suffered from this exchange. The success of Giselle with Karsavina was indisputable, and through this triumph this charming work of French romanticism, almost forgotten in its native land, became so fashionable that every famous ballerina became keen to include it in her repertoire.

Memoirs [volume 1] by Alexandre Benois. 1960. Pages140-141.

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