During all the years I was in the German theater system, I never did Giselle (by "did", I mean played or conducted). I never even saw it as a member of an audience so this was a new one for me. I recall a famous stage director once saying to me, there is French music, and then there is Adolphe Adam. Certainly, there was not anything apparently French in the style of writing Adam employs, although occasionally the 6/8 rhythms and cadential features reminded me of the many French operettas that I have done (and that is a great repertoire with which to learn conducting). Christophe Stocker conducted with assurance and negotiated all the small rallentandos and rubato that you typically get in French operetta and ballet. The orchestra had a satisfying and homogeneous sound, as to be expected from a German orchestra, although there were serious intonation problems at the beginning of the second act in the lower brass and woodwinds as well as, unbelievably, the timpani (pitched drums). Too much champagne during the interval?


Scene from the ballet "Giselle"



The staging, on the other hand, was a perfect confirmation that you can produce a show out of nothing. For the second act there was absolutely no scenery and the entire 45 minutes depended on the imaginative choreography of telling the story of Giselle along with the wonderful costumes. In an interesting move in the 1st act, what appear to be stagehands come onstage complete with tools and start doing construction work to the existing scenery, such as hanging a door on one of the huts. They are, in fact, not stagehands but male members of the ballet troupe, but the rather strange juxtaposition worked really well in this context. There was just the right mixture of traditional and modern in this production, which left it still possible to decipher the storyline of Giselle through the choreography.





The photos I have used are taken from the website of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and are available for public use. Obviously, there is no question of taking photos during the performance.

4*