Giselle: From peasant girl to stardom
Lisa Macuja Elizalde was Ballet Manila’s first Giselle, partnered by Osias Barroso as her Albrecht. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
Giselle was a peasant girl enjoying the simple things in life. But the dancer that the ballet was choreographed for was anything but. Indeed, she was the rising star of the Paris Opera and the ballerina believed to be the one to “save” the company after the departure of several of its superstars.
Giselle catapulted Italian ballerina Carlotta Grissi to stardom when the Paris Opera premiered the ballet in 1841.
Her name was Carlotta Grisi. She was born in Italy and trained at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In 1836, she met ballet master Jules Perrot and her life changed forever. She became his muse and lover. He brought her to the Paris Opera and partnered her with Lucien Petipa. And when the time was right, he intended to introduce her to the world as the successor of the company’s tradition of excellence in ballet.
Finding the right ballet to launch Carlotta as the new star of the Paris Opera became a matter of professional and personal pride. Director Leon Pillet needed a way to showcase the young dancer. Librettist Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges offered his new work entitled La Rosière de Gand but was rejected by the ballerina who wanted something more “danceable”. Instead, Théophile Gautier put forward the idea for Giselle. The rest, as they say, is history.
Giselle premiered on June 28, 1841 at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris. It catapulted Carlotta to ballet stardom. She reprised the role nine months later in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre. She danced 13 shows, two attended by Queen Victoria.
Principal dancer Abigail Oliveiro is the only remaining active dancer in the company to have performed the full-length ballet in the past. Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz
Fanny Elssler succeeded Carlotta in performing the title role. While her performance in Act 1 as the peasant girl who had her heart broken by Duke Albrecht was lauded, she lacked the otherworldly grace and elegance that made Carlotta’s wili memorable to the audiences. Thus, she received mixed reviews.
As with most classical ballets, Giselle eventually found its way to Russia. In 1842, it premiered in St. Petersburg for the Imperial Ballet through the efforts of ballet master Antoine Titus.
Years later, Perrot joined the company as the new ballet master and set out to restage the piece with no less than Marius Petipa by his side. In 1850, Perot’s Russian version premiered at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, marking the return of Carlotta to the role that made her a star.
Petipa went on to restage the piece which became the basis for the many versions being used by various companies today. Throughout his many revisions, he went on to premiere many Giselles including prima ballerinas Maria Gorshenkova and Emma Bessone, ballerinas Elena Cornalba and Henriëtta Grimaldi, and a very young Anna Pavlova.
Pavlova went on to become one of the three great interpreters of Giselle. The other two were prima ballerinas Tamara Karsavina and Olga Spessivtseva.
Sayaka Ishibashi makes her debut as Giselle in 2019. Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz
Other highly notable Giselles were Dame Alicia Markova, Galina Ulanova, Alicia Alonso, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Yvette Chauviré, Natalia Makarova and Carla Fracci.
For Ballet Manila, the company’s first Giselle was prima ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde. She had danced her first full-length Giselle as a soloist with the Kirov Ballet.
“It is one of the most poignant roles I’ve ever danced. It demands the utmost energy and acting ability because even when Giselle is dancing strenuously difficult parts, the ballerina must make it look like she’s a spirit floating lightly on air,” she once wrote.
Other dancers of Ballet Manila who have performed the role include company pioneers Elline Damian and Sandralynn Huang, and in succeeding years, Jenny Olayvar, Yanti Marduli, Joan Emery Sia, Katherine Barkman, Sayaka Ishibashi and Abigail Oliveiro.
Today, Abigail is the only remaining active dancer in the company to have performed the full-length ballet in the past, and will again play the role for one of the shows comprising Ballet Manila’s 2024 staging of Giselle.
Ballet Manila pioneers Sandralynn Huang (left) and Elline Damian both had the chance to dance as the peasant girl who dies from a broken heart. Photos by Ocs Alvarez
