Giselle Bddrip

The dancing in this historic performance is stupendous. Bessmertnova and Lavorovski are both Bolshoi jewels, embodying the athleticism, grace, power and artistic interpretation that exemplified the tradition.

Milan's La Scala continues to spoil ballet lovers with its exploration of the great classics, with yet another excellent "Giselle", filmed live in April 2005.

Marian Smith recaptures a rich period in French musical theater when ballet and opera were intimately connected. Focusing on the age of Giselle at the Paris Opéra (from the 1830s through the 1840s), Smith offers an unprecedented look at the structural and thematic relationship between the two genres. She argues that a deeper understanding of both ballet and opera–and of nineteenth-century theater-going culture in general–may be gained by examining them within the same framework instead of following the usual practice of telling their histories separately. This handsomely illustrated book ultimately provides a new portrait of the Opéra during a period long celebrated for its box-office successes in both genres.