ABT'S GISELLE, MET OPERA HOUSE, NYC, MAY 23, 1999

New York had not seen Nina in Giselle since the Bolshoi's visit in 1987, when she danced the title role with Andris Liepa as Albrecht. (She was also featured as Myrtha in another performance that summer.) The performance on May 23, billed as her debut in the role with ABT, therefore attracted an extra large and enthusiastic audience. And Nina did not disappoint. Her interpretation of the role has naturally deepened in the intervening years; her technique and her strength remain astoundingly formidable. On re-reading her comments on Giselle in her interview with Barbara Newman in the book Striking a Balance, it was surprising to be reminded that at the time of her debut in the role with the Bolshoi, even her mentor, Raisa Struchkova, had reservations on her suitability for the part. Nina's technical brilliance was already evident, but some thought she might not have the lyrical qualities necessary for this Romantic ballet. Nina's debut performance put all such doubts to rest, and now we have her more mature conception of the role, which some have called the Hamlet of ballet.

In the first act, her Giselle is full of eagerness and joy as the village girl courted by the slightly mysterious Loys (Count Albrecht in disguise), played charmingly by Guillaume Graffin. Her buoyant jumps and playful mime defined a portrayal of Giselle which progressed from the simple naivete of testing Loys' declaration of love with a daisy, to her obvious pride in showing off her beau to her friends in an ensemble dance. The innate sweetness in Nina's character showed in the way she kindly but firmly rejected the huntsman Hilarion's (Keith Roberts) protestations of love. She was convincingly awed by Princess Bathilde (Christine Dunham) and the latter's sumptuous attire. The "dialogue" between the two women on their fiancés was touchingly mimed. In her major solo in Act I, Nina dazzled in the traditional prolonged series of hops on pointe, with her raised leg delicately moving in ronds de jambe. Later, on discovering Loys' true identity and deceit, Giselle's mind shatters and, her eyes chillingly vacant, Nina acts out her mad scene with simple but heartbreaking intensity. (In contrast- -the wonderful and dramatically gifted Alessandra Ferri, who returned to Giselle with ABT after a two-year hiatus, was a more hoydenish village maid--and her mad scene was appropriately Italian--melodramatic in the best theatrical sense. She resumed her celebrated partnership with the exemplary Julio Bocca.)

In Act II, Nina's technical strength allowed her to perform the unsupported adagios with seemingly incredible ease. Her powerful yet delicate leaps and her long limbs, fully extended in arabesques, created unforgettable images of the Romantic ideal. Yet this was no bloodless ghost, but a spirit who still loved and forgave Albrecht.

Graffin, always an attentive partner, was as convincing a careless deceiver as he was a repentant lover. His well-executed variations were fully acted and danced and his farewell to Giselle, with a reprise of his pledge of eternal love, was moving. The ABT corps was again in top form, deservedly garnering applause at various points. Martha Butler was a promising Myrtha, needing only a bit more aplomb for an even more effective portrayal. Charles Barker was the responsive conductor. (Nina will dance Giselle again on June 17.)

Spider's Note: It has been my good fortune to see live, many of the great ballerinas of our time dance Giselle: Maximova, Makarova, Kirkland and Ferri among them. Kirkland's (w/Baryshnikov) continues to haunt and is a standard for many; Ferri's (first Baryshnikov, then with Bocca) grew to the point where I blasphemed by believing she surpassed the legend of Fracci and her unbelievable lightness in Act II is perhaps unequalled; Maximova's (w/Vasiliev) showed a balance between technique and characterization the totality of which was supreme, where neither calls attention unto itself and you saw her only as Giselle - it made one long for what it must have been when she was younger, at her peak! I long no more, for Ananiashvili showed me a Giselle so complete in realization - without technical distractions (shortcomings or excesses) - that I can only say Giselle was alive and took me into her world. I now have one less regret when I depart for "that land from whose bourne no traveller returns". 

The May 23rd performance being what it was, I was determined to see the second on June 17 even though I had to fly from halfway around the world (Manila, Philippines) some 30 hours before curtain time. A total improvement over the first performance, including the partnership with Graffin, it gripped me with utter delight as neither jet lag nor fatigue diminished the heavenly experience. Oh, yes...that lightness in Act II?, with the right partner like Graffin, one did not wish for more.