Staatsoper Unten den Linden, Berlin
July 5, 2024
Approaching the Staatsoper in Unten den Linden to see Giselle, a fresh summer breeze blowing, I saw the well-dressed crowd, the usual pretzel man selling the well-known German snack, tourists walking by glancing at the gathering, and a homeless guy in a colourful outfit who kindly approached me asking if I knew the score of Germany v Spain, playing at that moment. Berlin is often like this: a sort of improvised theatre where everything randomly merges often creating surreal displays.
Entering the theatre a way more conformist scenario opened up. People chatted, drinks in hand, while others made their way to their seats. And, of course, the orchestra was busy tuning up before the beginning of the performance.
This performance of Patrice Bart’s Giselle was special in that it saw Ksenia Ovsyanick dance the lead role for the last time. Longtime principal dancer of the Staatsballett Berlin, she bids farewell after eight years with the company during which she has danced leading roles in many other major classical productions including The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker and Don Quixote, plus appearing in many other classical and contemporary works.
Ovsyanick danced Giselle with extreme precision, confidence, beauty and elegance. Her interpretation impeccable both in the first and in the second act.
As a peasant girl, she embodied her with tenderness and remarkable grace. Her gentle movements were seemingly effortless. She danced as if gravity did not exist.
Particularly engaging was that moment when she goes mad having discovered that Albrecht (David Soares), her beloved one, is a nobleman and therefore impossible to marry, despite him also loving her. In that moment of dismay, her disappointment, pain and hopelessness were all fully visible in both her expressive body and face. It was very authentic and very moving.
Noteworthy too were the tender and romantic moments in the dance between Giselle and Albrecht. His well-mannered and amorous behaviour coming together sensationally with her shy yet loving responses.
At the end of the first act, Giselle dies of heart attack because of the realisation that her love cannot be fully lived. Dramatic as it sounds there is something vividly poignant in it. It has many parallels with today. It made me think of people who cannot get married for all sorts of reasons, including caste differences, as in Giselle; and indeed others who cannot live with beloved ones, separation enforced for whatever reason.
Act Two is full of the grief connected to Giselle’s death. Her vitality and energy, which used to be so infectious, disappeared along with those who surrounded her, Albrecht and Hilarion apart. Albrecht, so cheerful and energetic in the first act becomes a man lost, although a sparkle of his vitality and hope is rekindled in their duet of reunion when she appears as a ghost.
Albrecht, set to become a victim of the Willis, is saved by the ghostly Giselle. Their pas de deux is romantic and delicate with a nuance of nostalgia for what was and what will never be, can never be, again. If there is a message, and despite the terribly sad story, it is that while death may divide physically, love continues to live.
It was a marvellous evening. Filling the Staatsoper with a marvellous sense of smooth elegance, her celestial and expressive face, and meticulous dance, Ovsyanick made the masterpiece that is Giselle truly shine.
The supreme music by Adolphe Adam, played by the Staatskapelle Berlin, directed by Marius Stravinsky, accompanied the dance with majesty, helping everyone in the audience immerse themselves in world of Giselle, her joys and struggles.