“Giselle is one of the oldest preserved ballets still being performed today. It premiered in Paris in 1841 and the music, libretto and much of the choreography have remained intact. Giselle is uniquely preserved and assuch has much to tell about the time in which it was created. Well performed, a contemporary audience can still respond to the work, to its content.
What has captivated me from the first time I saw it many years ago are the strong oppositions and contrasts in Giselle. Between the realism of the first act set in a peasant village in the countryside, to the dreamlike romance of the second act set in a nocturnal forest with menacing spirit beings. Then there is the contrast between castle and hut, or the meeting between individual and group. Prince Albrecht mixes with peasants. Giselle is treated differently because she is hyper sensitive. She does not participate in the work of the farming village. In the forest, among the willies, she is the only spirit who, even after death, is tormented by lost love and who rejoices for the man whose betrayal drove her to madness and death.
She embodies a place where high and low, life and death meet in an intersecting union that tears her to pieces, but conversely creates a human being.
All of this said about what attracted me to the original Giselle, my version is an attempt to reshape the saga.”
– Mats Ek before the premiere of Cullberg Ballet’s production of Giselle, 1982.
Giselle spent years in the company’s repertoire and holds the record of having been performed more than any other Cullberg Ballet piece. It is considered by many to be its most iconic work to date.
SVT recorded Giselle in 1986. Producer: Måns Reutersvärd
Costume: Ulla Mamer (based on Marie-Louise De Geer Bergenstråhle, née Ekman) Lights: Börje Berglund.