GISELLE

In the organizer's words:

The fun-loving Giselle falls in love with the go-getter Albrecht and gives up her previous life plan because of him. She realizes too late that he was just playing with her. This experience destroys her. From then on, Albrecht has to live with the knowledge that he has Giselle on his conscience. Thoughts of the victims of his selfish actions haunt him like vengeful furies. Can he find forgiveness before he is hounded to death?

A text by Heinrich Heine about the mythical figures of the Wilis gave Théophile Gautier the idea of turning the material into a ballet in 1841. Wilis are young brides who have died before their wedding and can find no peace: In the forest at night, they dance every man they meet to death. It is not least the mythically charged character of the ballet that is responsible for the enduring fascination that "Giselle" still exerts today. The libretto combines three archaic motifs that create the actual field of tension in which the action takes place: wine, hunting and the forest. Karl Alfred Schreiner partially distances himself from the surface of the plot structure, but emphasizes all the more the deeper dimension of the material, whose timelessness is fed by the power of myth. He is supported by Adolphe Adam's exciting music, which is presented by Michael Nündel, the musical director, in an unusual, partly newly arranged interpretation.