Often considered to be “the Hamlet of ballet,� Giselle has the distinction of being perhaps the most famous ballet to arrive out of the Parisian Romantic period, boasting the art’s most experienced dancers in its leading roles since its creation. Its origins stemmed from the idyllic literature of French poet and writer Theophile Gautier, who composed Giselle’s emotive plot after reading an Aryan legend in a book by the German poet Heinrich Heine.

An avid admirer of the Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi, Gautier was introduced to her tutor, the choreographer Jules Perrot. From small beginnings, Giselle soon became a joint collaboration between Gautier, Perrot, the composer Adolphe Adam, and the librettist Vernoy de Saint-Georges; in essence, it was solely a French artistic venture. After its enormously successful 1841 premiere at the Paris Opera, Giselle made a triumphant progression across European and North American stages within the same year.

The Russian critic Yuri Slonimsky was prompted to remark that it was the first time that a ballet had such a “wonderful dissemination.� In 1842, the ballet reached the footlights of the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg, and was staged by the legendary Antoine Titus. This event was of critical importance as to the future perspective of Giselle and its French origins; indeed, the Russian interpretations of Coralli’s and Perrot’s masterpiece were so impressive that they became synonymous with the Bolshoi and Kirov ballet companies.

Giselle’s drama occurs in a small medieval village located in the Rhineland and begins when Count Albrecht, infatuated with a village maiden, Giselle, disguises himself as a peasant named Loys in order to court her. Hilarion, a forester who is also fighting for her affection, is mistrustful of Giselle’s new suitor and attempts to warn her of his suspicions. Giselle, however, is deeply in love with Loys, and will not be persuaded otherwise.

A hunting party arrives within the village, led by the Duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde, who is betrothed to Albrecht. The village celebrates the end of the harvest with the crowning of Giselle as the queen of the small hamlet. However, during the ceremony, Hilarion exposes Albrecht’s duplicity and reveals Loys’s true identity to Giselle; mortified and distressed at the callous deception, she becomes insane. Reaching for Albrecht’s sword before the villagers can stop her, Giselle commits suicide.

It is after midnight, and Hilarion arrives at Giselle’s tomb in the woods to mourn. The grief-stricken forester is greeted by Myrtha, the queen of the wilis, who are the ghosts of young maidens whom have died before their wedding day; in their vengeful manner, the wilis rise at night and dance any man they see to death. Myrtha summons her wraith-like subjects and performs the coronation that will induct Giselle into the ranks of the wilis.

A remorseful Albrecht visits the site of Giselle’s grave with a bouquet of white lilies in his hand, when he witnesses her spirit; she reassures the Count of her forgiveness and unfathomable love for him. The wilis return and pursue Hilarion, driving him to his death in a lake. The vindictive Myrtha then condemns Albrecht to dance with her spectral sisters until he dies, but Giselle intervenes to save him. Exhausted through his forced dance, Albrecht is near death, however, he is granted a reprieve as the dawn’s light depletes the wilis' strength, allowing him to escape.

Giselle: The Kirov Ballet is presented in a 1.33:1 screen aspect ratio and is, therefore, fully-framed.

Recorded for video at the Kirov Theatre in July 1983, Giselle’s transfer is problematic to a degree where it is practically detrimental to the viewing experience. To be fair, this is perhaps not so much an indication of the transfer itself, but of the limitation of the source material; this argument though does not excuse the apparent manner in which Warner Vision seem content to treat ballet aficionados as second-rate customers.

Black levels are somewhat variable, alternating between being solid and sometimes opaque; nowhere is this more apparent than in the ballet’s second act, occurring at night and near Giselle’s tomb. On occasions, it seems that blacks are rendered too dark and succeed in obscuring detail, but this can be attributed to stage lighting as these dim areas are mostly restricted to the edges of the stage and orchestral pit.

Film-to-video artefacts consisting of linear blips are present, and are most noticeable at 54 minutes and 18 seconds. Other than traces of minor macro-blocking appearing during the ballet’s transition into its second half, there are no evident MPEG artefacts throughout the remainder of the presentation. However, the transfer’s mortal weaknesses stems from the excessive amounts of edge enhancement and grain which plague it.

Indeed, throughout Giselle it seems as though both the dancers in the fore and background have a permanent silhouette about them, which is most distracting; as a result, it is difficult to focus on the performers and not the fixed outline which surrounds them, accumulating in what is perhaps the worst example of edge enhancement that this reviewer has yet seen. Grain is ever-present and is most noticeable with dark and dimly-lit areas.

Discernible but not too intrusive in the first act, the grain becomes increasingly worse during the ballet’s second part as the stage lighting is dimmed to simulate night; in some instances, the on-screen image is saturated with granules. To compound matters, there are moments where slight colour bleeding and oversaturation is evident; flesh-tones seem relatively accurate and colour, while not exactly vibrant, is consistent.

There is only audio selection available, that of the Dolby Digital 2.0 and can be considered to be serviceable at best. Although there appears to be no evidence of distortion or sound dropout, composer Adolphe Adam’s exquisite and sweeping composition lacks dynamic range, particularly in the higher frequencies. As a result, the music score sounds limited, despite the fact that, viewed via the Dolby Pro-Logic decoder, it is featured in all five channels; of course, the subwoofer is inactive.

Extras are limited, with only an eighteen page booklet containing a brief plot synopsis and cast credits, and a link to the NVC Arts website, accessible via a DVD-ROM drive.

Gautier’s Giselle was a pivotal turning point in the history of ballet and its impact cannot be understated. The legendary French choreographer Marius Petipa ensured that the ballet was the first in which to feature the ballet-blanc, or "corps of women in white," which has since become the symbol of classical ballet. Unfortunately, this transfer does not do this exceptional work any justice; in short, avoid it.