When I started going to the ballet, a caddish Albrecht and a good-hearted Hilarion were both enough of a novelty to warrant mention. Now, both are usual, the latter nearly standard.

In the Beaumont libretto, Hilarion is the villain. He's not an evil man, but an intelligent rather arrogant one (and coarse as well, but he's used to being Top Dog in that village). He acts in revenge because Giselle scored him. I've seen interpretations where Hilarion thinks that if I only tell her the truth, then she'll love me. Not in the original. He wants to publicly humiliate her, it seems. He finds the sword and mantle and picks his moment to reveal them -- when everybody is there to watch, 36 seconds after Giselle is crowned Queen of the Harvest.

What interpretations have you seen? Do you like him as a hero or a villain?

Ahem! Now see here! As the Sole Surviving Member of the Original Hilarion Defense League, I must of course take vigorous exception to any suggestion that Hilarion is anything less that a truely noble soul, cursed with a less-attractive container than his rival!

After all, doesn't he stand up for true National Loyalty in supporting the marriage of his Duke (Albrecht) to the daughter of the Duke next door(Bathilde)? Isn't he acting on behalf of Family Values by exposing a fraud (and an outsider, yet?) Isn't he generous(rabbits)? Isn't he spritually moved by Giselle's death to stand a vigil at her graveside? Isn't he the Boy next Door?

We figured out, we OHDL, a ballet to some of the "Mam'zelle Angot" score for Albrecht to get Carabosse, Giselle to get Dr. Coppélius, Myrtha to get Golfo(they were deliriously happy with one another) and Hilarion, who had spent most of his time up a tree to escape the tirading Wilis and some lost Polevstians, got the Prettiest Girl In The Company, all courtesy of the Sugar Plum Fairy!

How we proposed to keep Civil War from breaking out over the PGITC company part, I don't think we ever resolved.

[ 04-24-2001: Message edited by: Mel Johnson ]

Well, if you ask the folks at the Bolshoi, we all KNOW who they think the Real Good Guy is.
He didn't get the holographic sequins or the jaunty velvet beret, but he got that great green outfit and Those Boots to show off his beats......

[ 04-26-2001: Message edited by: Juliet ]

Juliet, Wasn't the Bolshoi Hilarion dressed in mustard yellow with red trim (and a red Shriner's hat)? Whatever he was wearing, he was most definitely a central character, and got a dramatic suicide, not murder, when he hurled himself off the cliff like he thought he was Siegfried. This concept definitely did not work for me.

Juliet has Production Amnesia.....

who had the green outfit and lots of extra dancing to do ? I thought it was Wilfrid who had the outfit like he came out of a crackerjack box.....

Juliet, perhaps the man in green with lots of extra dancing was von Rothbart in ABT's new Swan Lake.

You *are* silly. That was The Iguana.

I'll check. I could have sworn it was the Bolshoi production......not important, really--