I read somewhere that there will be a new DVD on Paris Opera Ballet's Giselle production expected to be out in the market in late 2007 or early 2008. Does anybody know if this is out yet or when it would be out? I couldn't find it anywhere.
Thanks!

The DVD was announced last year when it was broadcast on French TV, but since then there's been no news of this release. It shouldn't be too long though, if the other POB DVDs are any indication (for instance "Proust", the Roland Petit ballet, was filmed last spring and has just been released).

It now looks like the dvd of Proust has been released in France. Proust

Apparently the Giselle DVD will be released in North America on May 27. The details are still sketchy, for one thing Amazon lists it as a CD, but the product number on Amazon.com matches its British counterpart, so I'm pretty sure this is it.

http://www.amazon.com/Giselle-Adam/dp/B0017PB27M/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adam-Giselle-Conne.../dp/B0017PB27M/
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/TDK/DVWW-BLGISP
http://www.amazon.ca/Adam-Adolphe-Charles-.../dp/B0017PB27M/

From the TDK web site:
http://www.tdk-music.com/frame_content.php...mp;from_id=2825

... But April 28 in the UK!

Thanks for that!

I noticed that the release date has been readjusted to June 24 in North America. I've waited this long, I suppose another month won't kill me.

Has anyone got hold of this DVD ? I'm living in France, I've tried to order it on sites in the UK, but they tell me it's out of stock.
I've just received a message from french amazon telling me that this item is "rather hard" to find but if I wish they'll keep looking for it.

It's strange for a just released DVD.

Arrived yesterday, not yet opened:

Adolphe Adam
Giselle ou Les Wilis
Ballet-pantomime en deux actes
Giselle - Laetitia Pujol
Albrecht - Nicolas Le Riche
Myrtha - Marie-Agnes Gillot
Hilarion - Wilfried Romoli

Les Premiers Danseurs et le Corps de ballet de l'Opera national de Paris
Orchestre de l'Opera national de Paris
Paul Connelly Conductor

Recorded Live at the Opera national de Paris / Palais Garnier December 2006
Directed for TV and Video by Francois Roussillon

Running time 111 minutes

TDK DVWW-BLGISP

I got mine from Amazon - but I see it is now marked as 'unavailable' - weird, indeed.

Maybe it accidentally contains Top Secret government papers?
I'll report back as soon as I get the chance to watch it! ...

I finally got mine. There's a list of distributors on the TDK site : http://www.tdk-mediactive.com
I ordered it from the french seller and got it in 2 days.
Amazon and all sellers I usually order from are chronically out of stock.

Have you had a look at it? Inquiring minds want to know...

Yes, reports, pleeeeeeeeeease!!!

Simply Beautiful - a must for all POB fans

Hi there. Does the POB production include any mime at all, e.g. Berthe's mime warning Giselle of the Wilis? I just think that the story makes more sense with the mime than without it.

Also is Act Two based on the Skemping Production, in that I mean is that do the Wilis scare off any other men besides Albrecht and Hilarion?

Giselle's mother does a mime warning her daughter of death and becoming a willi but I didn't find it very clear. I mean, if I hadn't already known what it is all about I wouldn't have understood much of it. Still, it adds a tragic edge to Berthe's character which I find bland in some productions, and to the whole first act.

Before the entrance of Myrtha two willis appear and scare off Hilarion, and I think the group of gamblers, but I would have to check to be sure and being too lazy now I'll let somebody else answer this one for me.

When I saw Marie-Agnès Gillot featuring on the dvd cover I thought obviously she must be Myrtha, and yes she is.
But there's nothing of the obvious in what she does, that is superb dancing.
All the cast looks deeply involved in their roles and give sense to the (great) dancing.
Laëtita Pujol does some very physically demanding steps, Nicolas Le Riche is superb too. Being ignorant as to the technical dance vocabulary I'm at a loss to tell you exactly why I particularly loved this Giselle.

But I just ordered "The Video Dictionary Of Classical Ballet" so I might not be totally hopeless...

Sorry for the delay - when I get a new ballet DVD, I can't watch it until I get a free evening - by free I mean guaranteed no interruptions; with witnessed statements to that effect from all friends and family.

Finally, I managed it, and it's a marvellous version of the ballet, very traditional, rich in mime (done properly, so far as I can tell, but I'm no expert).

The leads are both excellent, Laëtitia Pujol on top form, and with good 'chemistry' between them. Good camera work and direction allows us to see almost all the footwork, with a variety of angles - but no pointless changing angles every few seconds. The company, as ever, is superb, which shows not only in the second act, but in the villagers' dances in the first act too.

Dramatically, Giselle is well portrayed as the innocent maiden, and the 'mad' scene is horribly convincing, while her 'white act' is as good as any you'll find.

Albrecht changes seamlessly from 'bad boy caught out' to concern to guilt and then to horror; nice one, Nicolas Le Riche! Myrta seems technically fine, but not as strong a presence as in some versions, while Hilarion, always an ambiguous character, comes across as little more than a bully; perhaps that's why the Wilis show him no mercy?

Throughout, the direction is smooth, the camera work and lighting is good - though I felt the spotlight following the leads was overly bright and a little distracting in the first act.

I was very impressed by the orchestra and the sound quality; so often ballets on DVD are let down by poor sound

I've probably missed several key points here, but, all-in-all it really is an excellent Giselle; all involved clearly understood the ballet and respect its history and traditions. I suspect it'll be a while before we see a better one!

When you see such great shows, you cannot help but notice the trivial little weird bits; I found myself obsessed with Giselle's grave. Far from the wooden cross placed to mark a peasant's grave, there's an ten-foot tall War Memorial, carved in granite.

You can picture the scene at the undertakers: "Usually, moi lad, we'd just mark the grave with a simple wooden cross, and if Ma can afford it, a little stone in a few months' time; but I reckon this Giselle will be talked about for, oh, 170 years or so, so we'll give 'er summat better. Bring out that spare War Memorial - I don't reckon there'll be a another war for a few years ... "

But don't let it distract you from a wonderful performance

According to Amazon.com, the DVD is finally in stock on this side of the Atlantic.

Volcano...are you familiar with the past encarnations of the ballet...? LIke from the 70's?

Ooh, I can't claim to have seen that many Giselles in the '70s because I was quite small at the time, but I will fess up to being a Giselle junkie with most available recordings in my library.

Mmm...I was thinking of the current POB version vs. older stagings...

It's a new performance (well, December 2006), but not a new version. It's actually very traditional in design and choreography.

I found this film disappointing. I loved the production, but Laeticia Pujol is for me very technically weak in Act 2.

Not entirely off point, does anyone know what happened to the filmed version of Giselle with Fonteyn and Nureyev by the BBC in 1962? Kavanaugh in her book claims that the BBC filmed them in studio, and three Act II excerpts from this taping can be found on You Tube and in the video bio of Fonteyn, totaling 8 minutes+. I found the excerpts to be superb and can imagine what the complete Fonteyn-Nureyev version is probably like--if only it would be released. I cannot understand at this point what legal objections could remain to a commercial release.

This has come up before, and I'm pretty sure that excepts (probably the ones on YouTube), have been released on DVD; I have an idea it was a Fonteyn / Nureyev 'selections'.

Hopefully someone will have details (if no-one does, I'll dig deeper ...)

The catalogue of the BBC's dance archives describes the 1962 programme as 'Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in the pas de deux from Giselle Act 2'. It lasts 18 minutes and so far as I know that's all there ever was - it wasn't an extract from a production of the whole ballet. The Fonteyn/Nureyev DVD/tape called The Perfect Partnership includes a Giselle extract - I don't have it to hand to check, but I assume it's this one - I don't think there is any other film of them in this ballet.

[still off topic!]

The Perfect Partnership - Fonteyn and Nureyev (1985)

Margot Fonteyn & Rudolf Nureyev.perhaps the greatest partnership in the history of ballet. For the first time, their most acclaimed performances, which have thrilled audiences worldwide, have been captured on one DVD. The program traces their partnership from its glorious inception in 1962 (in Giselle at Covent Garden), to its grand finale some 17 years later.

That's the 'editorial review' from Amazon, but reviewer Ivy Lin says:

Stuff I wish they had added: The complete pas de deux from Act II of Giselle that was filmed for television following F&N's legendary Giselles in 1962. I've seen excerpts of this footage, but never the whole thing together. I wish this could have been the dvd to show the entire pdd, but oh well.

I wonder how many bought it expecting the whole pas de deux - I very nearly did!

I can't find any DVD that includes it at the moment.

[/off topic]

Nadia Nerina performed in a complete BBC "Giselle" in 1958 with the Bolshoi's Nikolai Fadeyachev as her Albrecht. (There are also films of Petrouchka, Coppelia, Les Sylphides, The Firebird and La Fille Mal Gardee all with Nerina directed by Margaret Dale in the BBC archives and they have been preserved). I don't think the BBC had it in them to do another complete "Giselle" so soon after that pioneering effort.

Fonteyn it seems did much less BBC work than Nerina. She did a very early "Swan Lake" Act II circa 1938 as well as a complete "Nutcracker" in the fifties. Other than that it is just a "Rose Adagio" or little solo here or there. There should be more considering her stature as Britain's prima ballerina.

Finally watched the POB production. It's beautiful but cold--perhaps due to camera work that kept cutting in Act II to 45 degree perspective shots, squishing the Willis. On top of which, the director was switching camera angles so often that I never gained an organic perspective of the action. For example, the director kept alternating "you're on-stage" shots with these long and middle distance views. And I found the dancing overall to be unexciting.