A 'GISELLE' THAT TOUCHES THE HEART---AND HANDKERCHIEF
                        Sterling Stalwarts, Flying Wilis, and 'Tighter-Than' Tights   
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Feb. 1-8, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 59
            The San Francisco Ballet has uncorked a sparkling “Giselle” to die for, carried off on opening night by a lead couple from opposite sides of the Earth. So the troupe’s cheeky gamble of opening the subscription season with a tragedy paid off, in both hearts and spades.
            Forget the carping about the treacly sentimentality, childlike concept of love and the wafer-thin romantic score by Adolphe Adam, in this 1841 classic. The SFB demonstrated that with a sensitive, affectionate performance, all the critiques give way to a great great evening of tragedy.
            This is not just the usual lesson about love and infidelity. It is also a protest piece about the abuse of power by rulers and nobility, comparable to  “Cyrano,” “The Marriage of Figaro” or “Rigoletto.”
            If you’ve seen earlier “Giselles,” this is an amplified “Giselle.” In early days of ballet, the male lead (Count Albrecht) was a hang-on partner, but hardly a true soloist. Furthermore, perhaps 20 minutes of music are now added from assorted Adam and non-Adam sources (drawing on the work of Bergmüller, Minkus and Emil de Cou), particularly in the hour-long act one, where the corps de ballet is the major beneficiary. The net effect is to fill out the work rather than merely to stuff it with excelsior.
            “Assorted sources” carry over too to the choreography, credited to the SFB’s  Helgi Tomasson, plus long-gone predecessors Petipa, Perrot and Coralli. But the net effect of these multiple hand-me-downs is salutary. There are now great dance demands on both Giselle and her opportunistic swain Albrecht, both in solos and couple. The pantomime is well-drilled, telling the story and relationships eloquently. And the bulky 1999 Mikael Melbye SFB production alternates between the happy village and the ensuing gloomy, foggy, funereal forest of the Wilis, where wingless spirits fly by mysteriously from time to time.
            I’ve seen a dozen Giselles over the years, none of them better than Yuan Yuan Tan from Shanghai, and most of them inferior. It is, like Juliet, a dream role, with transformations from innocence to selfless love to mature realization and doom. The girl that is all heart dies from it when deceived by her dashing lover.
            Tan is fragile, sensitive, vulnerable, ingratiating. This Giselle inspires immediate sympathy, all while executing photo-ready arabesques. Her musical sense is unerring, even in the marionette-like variations hiphopping to precise sounds, as perfectly attuned as a sewing machine.
            New this season is the Russian Artem Yachmennikov (in the opening-night cast) as Albrecht. Though he’s more than a foot taller than Tuan, their closely attuned love pairings were breathtakingly matched.  The powerful Yachmennikov is an imposing danseur noble, a superior addition to the company, capable of refined pantomime with sinuous movements adding surprise dimension to beautifully spun stories.
             The forest-spirit world of act two is altogether different from the sunny village, starting with the orchestral prelude, as dramatic as Verdi music, thanks to conductor Martin West & pit crew. Here the Wilis (spirits) dance at night in the fog, with a corps of 24 in white veils, like brides left at the altar, in precision unison.  Here Albrecht and the spirit of Giselle---loving, and forgiving---do that great pas de deux, which still cannot save the pair from permanent separation. 
            Stepping in on short notice, Elana Altman was an exemplary Queen of the Wilis I ever hope to see---not the usual cold and imperious technician, but rather a very human judge  dispensing her form of unbending justice.
            Hilarion (Pascal Molat) is also reconceived: not the nice guy/victim, but rather an unshaven outcast with knife, threatening the village. Consequently his perdition at the hands of the Wilis is much more credible.
            Add to all this the animated supporting cast, villagers, nobility  and corps, and you have a formidable must-see “Giselle” of high drama and topnotch dance achievement.
            BALLET NOTES---The men’s tights in use nowadays are a lot more revealing, particularly where the fully contoured buns are concerned. Such “tighter-than” tights have become increasingly popular since Rudolf Nureyev essayed them in the 1960s in all their revelatory splendor….Multiple casts are used here, with the other Giselles played by Sarah van Patten, Lorena Feijoo, Maria Kochetkova and Vanessa Zahorian.
            GISELLE, opening S.F. Ballet subscription season Jan. 29, with orchestra; through Feb. 13 at the Opera House, S.F. For info: (415) 865-2000, or go online.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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