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

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.

We just bought this DVD. Images are beautiful and sound quality is excellent. Carla Fraccis dancing is superb. At times, the filming adds value e.g. by including snapshots of forests and lakes. At times, the rapid-cut editing and the close-ups are a bit disturbing. In spite of those minor grudges, we warmly recommend buying this beautiful DVD.

I reviewed this yesterday and am only writing this because that was not quite correct. This is a movie which I hadn’t realized when I ordered it. The scenery, costumes are so elaborate they take aware from the gorgeous impact that actual ballet has had on me so many times. The filming of it is totally different than seeing it in person...

I saw this ballet danced by Brun in the 70s on T.V.. The performance by Brun was brillant. I ordered this DVD hoping I would still feel the same way after all these years. I was not disappointed and the DVD was of the highest quality and the dancing was as magical as I remembered it to be!

Lets be clear. The performances (excepting the corps) are mostly world class (although I prefer other Giselles). Unfortunately they have been done irreparable damage by screen directing and editing that is unfortunate at best (certainly in the second act) and inexcusable at worst. Especially in the second act, the camera uses tricks like showing dancers/images reflections in water (where in the Sam Hill should there be water in a cemetery in the woods?) and superimposing close-ups in order to (I suppose) beef-up the cinematic qualities of the video. Alas, it doesnt work and only detracts from the true genius of this masterpiece which deserves far better treatment. The corp in the second act, as seen from above, describing a circle, looks ludicrous and suspiciously like a bad Busby-Berkley musical. Where were the arbiters of good taste when this was put together??? They certainly were not David Blair (the re-choreographer) and Hugo Niegeling, the film director. A filmed performance with the same cast would have been infinitely superior and it is a great loss that we do not have one. What we have is more like a circus performance with trick photography at almost every turn (no pun intended) which trivializes the dancers as well as their art. Another minus is the totally lack-luster conducting by John Lanchbery who not only distorts the music but re-writes his own harmonies (as well as instrumentation) in place of the composer Adolphe Adam. Giselle need and deserves far better than this and it can only be recommended for the leads, who are handicapped by this travesty of film direction.

Ive watched a lot of movies over the past 50 years, and I think Im in a position to say that its very likely that the director of this movie never got a job as director of a movie again. Thats how badly he directed this version of Giselle. I also have watched some excellent ballet DVDs in the past year, so I knew that this ballet had to have been performed better. I bought the Giselle by the La Scala ballet company with Alessandra Ferri as Giselle, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Carla Fracci was magnificent as Giselle and Bruhn a very good partner.

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

I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD, not only as a past dancer, but I was very fortunate to see Carla Fracci dance with ABT in my youth. A truly great performance and a DVD that should be in everyons collection who appreciates ballet.

My daughter loves ballet. Wonderful gift.