Curtain call in GISELLE, OU LES WILIS with Natalia Osipova & Leonid Sarafanov 11.11.14

GISELLE, OU LES WILIS Fantasy ballet in two acts Music: Adolphe Adam Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa Production: Nikita Dolgushin Set and Costume Design: Vyacheslav Okunev Lighting Design: Mikhail Mekler November 11, 7:30 pm Natalia Osipova, Leonid Sarafanov “One of the most precious jewels in the classical ballet crown” (The Sunday Express, UK); “a classic slice of the 19th-century supernatural” (The Evening Standard, UK). British critics have showered Nikita Dolgushin’s version of Giselle at the Mikhailovsky with praise, and declared it a must-see. The performance offers a striking contrast between the lively village world of the first act and the gloomy netherworld in the second. The idyll of the love story is destroyed by treachery. In Act II, it is “as all realism is blown to the winds” that the ballet “becomes the great, shivering drama it’s meant to be” (The Guardian, UK). The Mikhailovsky Company performs the entire ballet, with its time-tested choreography, precise mise-en-scène, and abundant historical details, with “clear, devoted style” (The Financial Times). The artistic talents of the Mikhailovsky’s leading performers, blending technical mastery with personal charisma, are seen at their highest point in Giselle.