Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Théophile Gautier, Jean Coralli

Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa, Igor Kolb (Peasant pas de deux from Act I)

Staging: Honoured Artist of Russia Igor Kolb

Musical director: Honoured Art Worker of the Republic of Belarus Nikolai Koliadko

Set and costume designer: People's Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus Vyacheslav Okunev

Conductor: Yuri Karavaev

New version premiere: 28 September 2022

Жизель – Людмила Хитрова

Альберт – Константин Белохвостик

Мирта – Марина Вежновец

Ганс – Иван Камышов

Крестьянское па-де-де – Анастасия Ярмош (1-е исп.), Дмитрий Уксусников

Батильда – Татьяна Уласень

Герцог – Андрей Саркисов

Вилисы (Монна, Зюльма) – Диана Багатова, Елизавета Мусорина

Act I

Count Albrecht, enamoured with a peasant girl Giselle, hides his identity and title. He has disguised himself as a peasant, and Giselle takes him for a young man from a neighbouring village. 

Giselle's childhood friend, the gamekeeper Hans, who is also secretly in love with the girl, tries to warn her that Albrecht is not the kind of a person who he poses as. But Giselle doesn't want to listen him.

Left alone, Hans sneaks into Albrecht’s cottage where the count has changed into a peasant’s clothing and steals his cloak and sword with the coat of arms.

Horns are heard in the distance announcing the arrival of the hunting party.  Among the hunters are the Count’s Bride and her Father.  They stay in the village. Bathilde is charmed by Giselle’s spontaneity and beauty and presents her with a necklace…

The harvest festival begins. Hans emerges in the midst of the villagers’ party. He denounces Albrecht as a deceiver and in proof of this he demonstrates the sword. Giselle does not believe him. Then Hans blows the horn, and the Bride appears in front of the confused Count.

Giselle falls into a state of despair. Distraught by the betrayal of her beloved, Giselle loses her mind and dies.

Act II

Midnight. Hans comes to Giselle's grave. He is frightened by the wilis –spirits of the young women, who have died betrayed by their faithless lovers on the eve of their weddings. They rise from the graves at night and force all the wayfarers who come to the graveyard to dance until they drop dead. 

The Queen of the Wilis, Myrtha, calls for the spirit of Giselle: from now on she is one of the Wilis… The Count comes to the grave of Giselle. Seeing the grief and the remorse of the young man, Giselle forgives him.

The Wilis chase Hans and, forcing him to dance till exhaustion, throw him to his death in a nearby lake. The same fate awaits Albrecht. Giselle implore Myrtha to let her beloved go, but she is implacable…

It is dawning. Clock chimes are heard from afar. The day breaks and the Wilis lose their power. Albrecht is saved. Giselle bids farewell to her beloved and disappears in the early morning mist.

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