Last August 31, I watched Giselle, one of the most popular ballets, at the Aliw Theater. It was amazing!
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| Giselle |
This ballet tells the tragic story of title character Giselle, a young peasant girl with a weak heart who dies of grief and madness when the man who courted her and whom she loves, Duke Albrecht, turns out to be engaged to someone else. I took a photo of the plot summary and you can read it in the next photo.
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| Synopsis |
Renata Shakirova, a principal of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, played the lead role while Aleksei Timofeyev, a soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, played Albrecht. I thought they were both exceptional and tremendous artists. Renata was wonderfully expressive in both her movements and facial expressions, had magnificent technique, had breathtaking grace and elegance, and looked so effortlessly light. No wonder she is a principal at one of the best ballets in Russia and in the world! Aleksei was amazing too, with his tremendous presence and displaying incredible strength and power.
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| Curtain call of the cast with artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde |
Giselle was staged by Ballet Manila to uphold a promise made by artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde. I read that this ballet was supposed to be performed at this same venue back in 2019 but a fire struck Star City and the Aliw Theater, which is right next to it, was badly damaged. The show had to be staged at the CCP instead. Five years later, Ballet Manila is finally able to stage Giselle where it was meant to be staged. We actually saw Lisa Macuja-Elizalde in the audience when we were there!
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| Aliw Theater |
I'm really happy that I got to see Giselle. This was the first time I saw a show at the Aliw Theater (or at least the first time that I can remember). It's also the first ballet I watched since 2019, the last one was Swan Lake in June 2019. Hopefully, I get to watch more shows in the future.
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