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Mithgariel — Giselle
Published: 2007-10-23 20:45:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 2041; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 0
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Description
This Giselle is for Ayelie (~Ayelie-stock ). Happy munching, dear.
Giselle is a ballet in 2 acts, 2 scenes, with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier. Originally choregraphed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot (the principal Ballerina's dances) to the music of Adolphe Adam. First presented by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique, Paris, France, on June 28, 1841.
SYNOPSIS:
In the first act, a young, innocent village maiden named Giselle is in love with a man she knows only as Loys. In reality, the man is Albrecht, a nobleman disguised as a peasant, and who is betrothed to Bathilde, daughter of the Duke. When Giselle discovers the deceit, she is inconsolable and goes mad, then dies, one version says she dies of a broken heart while another says she commits suicide in her madness. In the second act, her undying love for Albrecht saves him from the wicked magic of the wilis, vampiric ghosts of betrothed girls who were betrayed by their lovers and died before their wedding day. Though their leader, Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, forces Albrecht to dance again and again, Giselle intervenes long enough to spare his life and allow him to survive until the dawn. At sunrise, the wilis must return to their grave; Giselle must return as well but not before showing Albrecht that she forgives him for his treachery. The two pledge their love to each other and she descends back into her grave, but will forever be separated. Giselle is now a wili for the rest of eternity.
SO WHAT IS A WILI?
Read here, quite thorough. [link]
MAKING OF THIS PICTURE:
First of all - I totally utterly blame Ayelie. Who told me about Giselle and ballet. Which lead me to reading and investigation about the theme. Secondly - I just HAD the pictures I needed. From my latest stock shoot with Kärts.
And another of the pictures that made itself, simply using me as a tool. I wanted to have water lilies for symbolism - no. I wanted to have dancing wilis in the background - no.
But I am totally satisfied how this turned out. Guess I will just have to make another, WITH the dancing luring wilis and water lilies.
So many layers and quite some new tricks that I learned.
STOCK CREDIT:
Model: my own, *Mithgariel-stock
Veils: gift from Andreea *ro-stock
Background: *soleildenuit2 , *restmlinstock
Lotus brushes: ~gutterlily10
Related content
Comments: 38
Hi, your work has been featured here [link]
Ana & Edwin
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Could not possibly live without them
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Yay.
Thank you, dearest 
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Beautiful tones and texture blending, it's like an oil painting!
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Thank you
But as I am dying for longer comments, I shall now ask you to explain (briefly) what it is that you particularly like about this picture
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Well for one: I love the emotion that the woman carries.
Two: I love the bleak but comforting tones.
Three: The story is amazing and what I just read about Slavic Faeries.
Four: You made a very good blending of the elements.
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Ha!
Now I truly thank you for the comment
And now you also know the story and about the wili (russalka).
I am currently watching Giselle clips from Youtube. Magnificent.
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Sounds so interesting! I will have to look..link me?>
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I have a better idea - look a bit down, there are two links in Ayelie's message. Follow those, and you get a load more. I surely did. And my user in Youtube is Mithgariel as well, I ought to have some clips in favourites. 
It is very much worth seeing. I LOVE the madness scene.
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Okies sweetie!! Going to see.
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You do that, and then tell me what you think of it. 
I am off to bed now, methinks. Ballet has kept me up until half past five in the morning as it is.
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okie hun...sweet dreams!
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The mad scene, when Giselle finds out Albrecht is engaged to the duke's daughter: [link]
Her dance as a wili: [link]
*sighs wistfully*
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OK. I swear I have seen at least ten versions of the madness scene - but I still love the one you linked me best - she is most natural and I think best acting of them.
And I've seen the same amount of her dance as vili - either with the duke or without him - I found one really long scene with the choir (or however it is called) joining in, too (I hoped to see the queen of wili dancing, but could not find any...)
Oh, and the third popular seems to be first act, allegro. That is magnificent, too, especially when she starts hopping on one leg and crosses the stage like that. And when it really turns into allegro
I tried to find more scenes but wasn't so lucky. So OK, there ARE some of Giselle and her lover, but very few and rare. (Or then again perhaps I am a lousy seeker).
But currently I ended up watching Swan lake (after I reminded myself of the scenario). I totally blame you in the fact that I have watched more ballet tonight than in my entire life. And I am LOVING it, btw.
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Queen of the wilis, [link] followed by [link]
Swan lake I love too, I won't start linking you though or I'll go on forever...
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Marianela is a true queen. She is SO royal, in all her expressions. And the entire dance rocks bigtime
Now, which scenes haven't I seen yet.... Most of the 1st act, methinks.
And I would kill for good links of Swan Lake
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er, edit, my playlist here [link]
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Someone posted the entire ballet of Giselle on youtube, in sections, so I can arrange the links in order for you so you can see the whole thing. It's a very good version, if a slightly older one with less of today's stunning technique - but the soft emotional dancing of then I find suits Giselle more than today's emphasis on perfection, so you may enjoy it a good deal as well
Links of Swan Lake.. well, you can see two of my favourite dancers in the whole world performing it here and here , though the videography is not very good. Bits of Semionova's Black Swan variation can be seen here and here as well, and there's another clip of her as Odette here and here .
But those are just clips of my favourite dancer... for good clips of the ballet itself, I'd say the following: classic clip of Nuryev and Fonteyn , Bolshoi's cygnettes , Guillem as Odile ... it's hard to find clips of the middle bits, everyone seems to post the big PDD's and the famous variations.
I have a few other clips in my playlist here , but none from Swan Lake or Giselle, they're more random ones. And some are really short or odd ones (LES TROCKS!
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I would much love that. Because so far I have seen Albrecht and Giselle dancing in the first act, then the madness scene, second act with wilis, (without Giselle, and with the queen, Mariana rocked big time), Albrecht and Giselle with wilis. I would much love to see the rest and in order.
I will start looking into the Swan lake links tonight.
Oh, and I found a most amusing parody of the Dying Swan, I bet you have seen it - by a man, and the poor swan keeps losing its feathers all the time and dies most hilariously.
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Yes yes yes! That's the variation by the Trocks. I've seen most of their stuff, I love them. They're an all-male group and they do ballets following the choreography, but with some men playing women. It's quite amazing, actually, that they can perform like that en pointe when their body structure is so different from that of women.
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I noticed that, yes. They seemed really professional. I wonder if the dance of little swans was by them, too? Must have been.
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Saw the second one, too.
Not as interesting as the mad scene, but I loved the faster part at the end, especially where she dances hopping and in circle
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Just saw the first one.
Wow. That was really...awesome. She did not just dance but act as well. (sometimes in Estonia it has seemed to me they just do the poses without emotion behind them...) I did not quite grasp WHAT was the cause of her death, though 
Now getting ready to watch the wili scene
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She died of a broken heart! Once Giselle learned the truth she died because she was so much in love with Albrecht.
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Poor her.
But just like wikipedia wrote - different causes of her death. And I saw several. There is always the scene where she toys with the rapier. And I saw one version where she very clearly stabbed herself with it. That was actually nice, because it was more believable than the ...ummm..heart attack version (yes, I am a realist
But I still don't get it - there is a particular moment where Albrecht attacks (a villager - his own comrade) with a rapier, and once it seemed to me he killed him (why, I wonder...).... what is all that about? He is mad, too? Must be.
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Yes, every company tends to create their own slight variations to ballets, even if keeping the original hundred-year-old choreography. The part where she spins the rapier around in the circle, though, is part of the choreography and a rather famous little bit within the scene, so I don't think anyone leaves it out ... unless they change the choreography and put new steps there or something.
Some versions she does actually stab herself at the end - I saw one in which he was holding the rapier in his hand, reached out his hands towards her in a pleading gesture, and she ran forward madly and ended up impaling herself on his rapier. Talk about a reason for him to feel guilty and sorrowful.
I know the moment you mean - part of the story is that a gamekeeper who is in love with Giselle, Hilarion, is the one who reveals the secret about how "Lars" is really Albrecht the nobleman, and Hilarion is the one who brings the Duke's daughter to the village to prove it. So when Giselle starts to go mad and Albrecht is pleading with her and following her, Hilarion tries to interfere and keep Giselle away from him (or in some versions duels with Albrecht), and Albrecht kills him. Albrecht is somewhat mad as well - I mean, he loves Giselle but is engaged to the Duke's daughter, and now Giselle has found out in the worst way possible and has gone mad, all because Albrecht was stupid enough to start a relationship that could never become anything and lied to her about what he was and the situation. He's going mad with guilt over the fact he drove Giselle mad, essentially, and when she does die at the end he can't handle it and that's why he goes to her grave and ends up ensnared by the Wilis.
But the villager isn't his comrade, you have to remember that Albrecht is actually a nobleman and not a villager at all. The only time he's been in the village is recently, when he went "undercover" to live as a peasant for a time.
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Aha. So that is how it was. Wikipedia brought up the synopsis, but that was too brief to talk about Hilarion. Now I understand. Otherwise it was like: who is he? why does he of all those villagers try to hold her back...
So now I know. Poor him... *sniff* I think he was mad with guild and despair as well...
And my sick imagination has Albrecht and Hilarion comforting each other, becoming friends and finally - lovers
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You should create your own version
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!
... this one I have no comments for. Just pure love. 
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No comments?
But others just say "cool" or something
Come on now, pretty please?
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