Adam - Giselle / Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn, John Lanchbery, American Ballet Theatre

Carla Fracci died recently, and this DVD is a great example of her work! A great performance by everyone, and an extra highlight is seeing Fracci up close; so beautiful and expressive.............!

Absolutely fabulous! It must be one of best versions of Giselle! Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn were both sensational dancers, I guess thats the reason for this filmed Giselle.

How David Blair could allow this insult to the dancers is beyond me. I noted that some people liked the performance, but Im at a loss to know how they actually saw the performance! Trying to watch an artist dance, through the back of huge hats, bad quality glass and anything else the director could find to put in front of them, was, to say the least, distracting. Add to that a camera that was moving so constantly that I almost felt sea-sick and editing that rarely stayed on the same shot for more than a few seconds and constantly interrupted the dance with completely irrelevant and distracting views of everything from a plate of fruit to galloping horses as seen from a galloping horse! Ballet is a theatrical art, but many others have shown that it can be totally cinematic. If you trust it and leave it alone, it will automatically weave its magic spell.

I detest this film. What should have been a glorious opportunity to capture Fracci and Bruhn in their signature partnership is ruined by the meddlesome and ignorant direction of Hugo Niebeling and David Blair. Giselle is a ballet; ballet is about dance; dance should be the focus of attention. We should have unobstructed views of the dancers dancing. Instead, we get shots through villagers eating and talking, shots from above, shots from the side, shots through machinery, shots reflected in pools, and so on - absolutely infuriating, unartistic, and puerile. What a shame and a sham! What a colossal misunderstanding of art!

I sympathize with reviewers who are put off by the artistic excesses in filming this version. A pity, because Ive owned many Giselles over the years and whenever I come back to this one, Im reminded of all the reasons Fracci remains my favorite. She has an energy and charisma that is not matched by other ballerinas who have performed this. That said, I rate Fracci 5*, the other principals and corps 4*, and the camerawork 2*. That averages somewhere between 3 & 4. For the best overall Giselle, combining youthful freshness, exquisite performances, direction and camerawork, my favorite is the La Scala version with Alessandra Ferri.

This is a good video. The dancing is great! My only problem with it is that since it is made for video, the director gets a little artsy and takes away a bit from the dancing with his creative touches. I was also disappointed that the credits are very limited. The only dancers credited at all were the principals and soloists. Still worth the purchase.

The dance performance is good. Video production is VHS quality, muddy and dark. It is too bad they couldnt remaster and clean up the video quality. Disappointing on DVD. No chapter divisions or random access to scenes.

I was much looking forward to this release as I had never seen this, one of the most notable ballet films ever done.

Note that this 2005 Deutsche Grammophon release of the 1968 ABT Fracci/Bruhn Giselle conducted by John Lanchbery is the identical production previously available on the now-withdrawn Polygram issue. Amazon reviews shown at either entry pertain equally to both releases. There is no need to pay an inflated price for an out-of-print copy of the earlier Polygram release.

THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO RECORDED GISELLE I HAS SEEN SO FAR. EXCELLENT! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IF YOU LOVE THE GISELLE BALLET LIKE I DO.