Giselle

Giselle is a Romantic ballet in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, first performed on June 28, 1841, at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris with Carlotta Grisi in the title role. It tells of a peasant girl, Giselle, who falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman disguised as a villager and already engaged to another woman; when his deception is revealed, the shock kills her, and in the second act her spirit is called up among the Wilis, vengeful ghosts of betrayed young women who force men to dance themselves to death, though Giselle's love ultimately spares Albrecht from their curse. Drawing partly on writing by Heinrich Heine and Victor Hugo, it has remained a central work of the classical ballet repertoire and is considered one of the most demanding roles a ballerina can dance.