Giselle

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Giselle ( jiz-EL, French: [ʒizɛl] ), originally titled Giselle, ou les Wilis (French: [ʒizɛl u le vili]; Giselle, or The Wilis), is a romantic ballet (ballet-pantomime) in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. It became hugely popular and was subsequently staged across Europe, Russia and the United States. The ghost-filled ballet tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl named Giselle and a disguised nobleman named Albrecht, who fall in love, but when his true identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion, Giselle goes mad and dies of heartbreak. After her death, she is summoned from her grave into the vengeful, deadly sisterhood of the Wilis, the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers and...

Read on Wikipedia · Image John Henry Robinson (1796–1871), after Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1860), Public domain