Australian Ballet: Giselle Opening Night

Love conquers death in the ultimate Romantic ballet. Since its premiere in 1841, Giselle has captured the imagination and torn at the heart.

A village girl falls in love with a man who is not all he seems. When she finds out his deception, she dies of a broken heart. Transformed into a spirit, she battles to save her lover in a wood haunted by the ghosts of jilted women.

For the ballerina, it offers a career-making opportunity to show off not just technique but emotional range, as she moves from an innocent girl to a tender, womanly spirit. Maina Gielgud’s acclaimed production, with Peter Farmer’s atmospheric designs, perfectly captures the ballet’s dramatic blend of real-life passions and otherworldly apparitions.

Yearning, madness, supernatural forces and transcendent, redemptive love: Giselle is the Romantic era crystallised in one perfect work of art.