Review: Giselle at the Liverpool Empire ****

Giselle has been if not endlessly then certainly regularly reinterpreted since it was composed some 183 years ago.

Among them are Mats Ek’s psychiatric asylum-set ballet, Liverpool’s own Frederic Franklin whose Creole Giselle for the Dance Theatre Harlem earned him an Olivier, and, most recently, Akram Khan’s bold reimagining set among abused migrant workers in a textile factory which English National Ballet brought to the Empire in 2017 with its then artistic director Tamara Rojo playing the doomed young Giselle.

Seven years on, ENB has returned to the theatre but this time with a production which rather than imposing a new aesthetic, instead seeks to celebrate the ballet’s high Romantic origins.

The late dancer and choreographer Mary Skeaping turned detective and spent many years researching and refining her version which seeks to present Giselle as those audiences who were charmed by the story in 1840s Paris would have seen it. In particular, she has restored the ballet’s wide use of mime to visually articulate the story of love, jealousy, betrayal, loss and the supernatural.

Speaking of visually, it’s an exquisitely rendered production – the curtain rises to reveal a world that’s part-Humperdinck, part-Fragonard, designer David Walker’s Rhineland village framed by effervescent autumnal foliage. It looks great filling the Empire’s vast sweep of stage.

Of course, the bucolic and the mystical sit side by side in the story of Giselle (Katja Khaniukova) who falls in love with a handsome young neighbour Aloys (Aitor Arrieta) who isn’t all that he seems, dies of a broken heart but whose enduring love will also save him. Even if, frankly, he doesn’t deserve it!

Above: English National Ballet in Mary Skeaping's Giselle © Emily Nuttall. Top: Aitor Arrieta as Albrecht, Katja Khaniukova as Giselle and Precious Adams as Myrtha in Mary Skeaping's Giselle © Emily Nuttall.

The ballet may seem gossamer light, but its choreography is demanding, requiring strength and stamina (there are a lot of jumps) and excellent technique to make it look quite so effortless and ethereal.

Khaniukova moves with a spirited, adolescent sense of joy (underscored by a delightful flute passage) as the trusting young village innocent whose dual loves - of her handsome suitor and of dancing - ultimately seals her fate, while Arrieta is muscular but expressive as the deceitful Aloys, unmasked by Fabian Reimair’s love rival Hilarion as a Duke called Albrecht who is already engaged to another.

Albrecht may be a shady dissembler, but Arrieta persuades you that you could (charitably) also see him as someone sincere but who has become trapped by duty.

On balance though, I’m with the Wilis – the avenging wraiths, led by Precious Adams’ Myrtha, who emerge with the midnight chimes to lead their male victims into a danse macabre.

A lone figure in Miss Havisham veil gliding across the stage turns into 20 in what is a striking, and very beautiful tableau. Meanwhile Adams brings elegance to her avenging Queen of the Wilis along with impressive elevation through a series of propulsive jetés, buoyed by the large touring orchestra in the augmented pit.

The dead Giselle, the character a bit droopy and docile in life, finds some gumption in the afterlife to fight to save a distraught, remorseful Albrecht in battle of wills/Wilis.

Purists and romantics will love Skeaping’s homage to Coralli and Perrot’s original choreography, and while it doesn’t necessarily stretch the boundaries of the tale, lovers of ballet will find much to enjoy in this enchanting ENB revival.