Giselle

Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The ballet tells the story (taken from a poem by Heinrich Heine) of a peasant girl named Giselle who has a passion for dancing, and when she finds out the man she loves is engaged to someone else she dies of a broken heart. This was the ballet that I went to see with my roommate yesterday evening.

The theatre is called Národní divadlo and is one stop away from the main station, tram nr. 1. It's gorgeous, on the outside as well as on the inside. I highly recommend.

About the ballet story

There is Giselle,

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a lovely peasant girl and there is Duke Albrecht of Silesia,

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a nobleman who has disguised himself as a peasant named Loys. He was about to marry Bathilde, the daughter of the Prince of Courland. Against the advice of his squire Wilfrid, Albrecht flirts with Giselle, who falls completely in love with him. Hilarion, a gamekeeper, is also in love with Giselle and warns the girl against trusting the stranger, but Giselle refuses to listen (girls, they never listen). Albrecht and Giselle dance a love duet, with Giselle picking the petals from a daisy to divine her lover's sincerity. The couple is interrupted by Giselle's mother (of course).

Then enters a hunting party and among the hunters are Bathilde and her father.

Giselle returns to the scene, dances for the party, and receives a necklace from Bathilde. When the party departs, Loys reappears with the grape harvesters. Giselle and the harvesters dance but the merriment is brought to a halt by Hilarion who, having investigated the Duke's cottage now brandishes the nobleman's horn and sword. The horn is sounded, and the hunting party returns. The truth about Loys (Albrecht) is learned and Giselle goes mad and dies.

The second act is set in a moonlit glade near Giselle's grave. Hilarion is mourning Giselle's death. He is frightened from the glade by the Wilis, female spirits who, jilted before their wedding day, rise from their graves at night and seek revenge upon men by dancing them to death.

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Albrecht enters searching for Giselle's grave, and she appears before him. He begs forgiveness. Giselle, her love undiminished, readily forgives him and the two dance.

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Giselle protects him from the Wilis when they force him to dance. Day breaks and the Wilis retreat to their graves, but Giselle's love has saved Albrecht. By not succumbing to feelings of vengeance and hatred that define the Wilis, Giselle is freed from any association with them, and returns to her grave to rest in peace.

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By the way, if you ever go to watch ballet, it is highly recommendable to read the story in advance, it helps a lot.

So, this was the first ballet that I ever went to and it was great! I guess I never had the opportunity to go before, but if I'll be able in future, I'm definitely gonna go again. Giselle was interesting and it had only two acts of 45 minutes or so, with a break of 20 minutes, so you couldn't actually get bored. And the amazing thing is that I understood what it was about, I understood the story even without reading it before. I only got lost in one moment, but my roommate helped me there (Russians, they have more experience with ballet). However, during the second act, I must admit, I almost fell asleep... Not because the ballet was boring or something but because it was dark, the music that the orchestra was playing was absolutely beautiful and I was a bit tired. Those comfortable chairs didn't help either. Next time, definitely coffee before going to ballet. But I can't believe how much I liked it. Oh, and I was looking if they are gonna make some mistakes, and they did, really small ones, but I noticed it. Otherwise, they were pretty good.

Today I went to the main square, twice actually: first time I was going with Dimitris' brother (my best friend's brother) to buy a hat for his girlfriend, and I bought one for myself as well because it's getting cold here; the second time I went for coffee. If you're looking for tasty, good coffee in a real cup (and not that glass thing they call cup), then go to Caffe Fratelli. It is near the main square, the interior is interesting, it's kind of small but they also have food. And they speak English.

Since Christmas is in less than a month, now you can see Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. Today they lighted up the big Christmas tree on the main square and there is also a Christmas market where they are selling all kinds of food and mulled wine and decorations and everything.

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It feels really christmasy (if that's a word) and it smells like that as well! As my friend Danny said, I've never seen so many people at the square. I guess half of Brno went to the opening of the market today. There was a lot of children and they were carrying Smurf balloons (so cute), eating candies or just chasing around. Some of them had some weird shaped balloons that looked like, God forgive me, giant penises. It looked so wrong in the hands of little children. In reality, they were a kind of worms with smiley faces, but... Just wrong.

Speaking of children, Aggelos (19) made me a Greek omelette today, with onions and sausages.

It was good, despite the fact that it was black on one side.

The Greek chef failed today, although it wasn't so much his fault; our frying pan sucks big time. But definitely 10/10 for the effort.

Tomorrow is the day for paintball. We'll see how that works out.

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