From the magazine

A jewel in the English National Ballet’s crown: Giselle reviewed

Francesco Gabriele Frola delivered triple tours en l’air that I have never seen bettered

Rupert Christiansen
Francesco Gabriele Frola: a fabulous Albrecht in ENB’s Giselle  © PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASH
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 25 January 2025
issue 25 January 2025

Since its première in Paris in 1841, Giselle has weathered a bumpy ride. For St Petersburg in 1884, Petipa gave Coralli and Perrot’s original choreography the once-over and Fokine grafted on further innovations when Diaghilev brought the ballet to London in 1911. Despite casts led by Pavlova, Karsavina and Nijinsky, it bombed here with critics and audiences, who considered its archetypal Victorian plot of the innocent village maiden betrayed by the local squire prissy and musty.

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