Giselle: The Romantic Ballet

The ballet Giselle first premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1841. Giselle is a ballet that tells the tragic story of the death of a young girl from a broken heart. This scenario fits in with the time of the Romantic era for it references to the Medieval era by including the idea of death throughout. It is said that, “‘The word romantic has been lately introduced in Germany to designate that kind of poetry which is derived from the songs of the Troubadours; that which owes its birth to the union of chivalry and Christianity” (Fleming-Markarian 9). Again, this relates the Romantic era to the Medieval era in that Christianity is seen as a large contributor and witnessed throughout Romantic ballets. With its storyline, choreography, and music, Giselle
One of those being the way in which Giselle dies. In the original performances Giselle stabbed herself with the sword of Albrecht (Lee 154), however this changed for later versions where she simply dies of a broken heart alone as a result of her weak heart condition (“Giselle” par 15). Another example comes at the very end of the ballet, when Albrecht is at the resting spot of Giselle one last time. In the original performance, while Albrecht is saying his final goodbyes to Giselle his fiancé is shown waiting for him to let the audience known that he may be a changed man but he is still about to go back to the life he had lived before just the same as ever (Fleming-Markarian
In his compositions, Adam aimed to follow the German influence that Gautier had used throughout the libretto (Smith 191). He did this by incorporating; “geographically appropriate music by composing three waltzes, the waltz being a dance very strongly associated at the time with German-speaking lands” (191). In Adam’s development of the musical composition he created something called a leitmotiv (Lee 155). By definition, a leitmotiv is “a phrase or other feature that is repeated often in a work of art, literature, or music and that tells you something important about it” (Cambridge Dictionary par 1). Adam used this compositional device to represent each character’s identity through various musical themes throughout Giselle, which is seen as the earliest of ballets to do so that is still in world repertory (Lee 155). An example of a leitmotiv in this ballet is expressed when Giselle finds out that Albrecht is really a prince and engaged to be married. She begins to go mad and to show the emotional state of her as a character, Adam repeated musical phrases that both Giselle and Albrecht had danced to together previously in the ballet but in a distorted way to show that she was going crazy from the events that had occurred (155). In his musical compositions for Giselle, Adam often referenced the opera; “one may also find a few specific musical likeliness to opera in the score of Giselle, the most obvious being the