Javier Torres's GISELLE Comes to Finland

Early October will see the premiere of Javier Torres's revision of Giselle, which moves the events of the ballet from its traditional setting in a medieval German village to 1950s Italy.

“In the 1950s, gender roles were still highly conservative, even if women's liberation was outwardly treated as a reality. The arrival of new home appliances made household work easier, while the introduction of trousers for women created a sense of heightened equality with men. Nevertheless, neither development truly freed women from traditional expectations, which continued to cast them as virtuous girls, good wives, or devoted mothers. This hypocritical ideology, combined with the fashion of the time, felt ideal for adding a contemporary edge to the production while preserving some of its original romantic features,” says Torres. In the white scene with the otherworldly Wilis in Giselle's second act, for example, Torres has chosen to honour traditions.

Giselle is the first new choreography Javier Torres has created during his leadership tenure at the Finnish National Ballet. His earlier works for the company have been the full-length ballets The Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Besides this, Torres has also revised the ballet La Bayadère for the Czech National Ballet. Giselle has a long tradition in the repertoire of the Finnish National Ballet, as it was first performed in Helsinki as early as 1929. The then ballet master of the company had encountered the work while studying in St Petersburg before the Revolution.

The nostalgic costumes of the production have been designed by Erika Turunen, with sets by Annukka Pykäläinen and lighting by Heikki Paasonen.

The music has been arranged by Gavin Sutherland, Music Director and Principal Conductor of English National Ballet, who studied Adolphe Adam's original score with orchestrator Lars Payne while working on the arrangement. Sutherland will also conduct the Finnish National Opera Orchestra.

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