First performed at the Paris Opéra on 28 June 1841 as a two-act "ballet-pantomime" and hailed by ballet historians as the oldest surviving exampl of a ballet that owes its origins to the work of a global collective.
As the archetypal Romantic ballet, Giselle revolves aroun the traditional motif of the love that triumphs over death, a motif that can be traced back to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and that was to culminate in the later 19th century in the music dramas of Wagner.
The plot, in outline, is as follows. Giselle is an innocent and naïve young girl from the country.

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Born in Paris on April 22nd 1917, Yvette Chauviré was admitted to the Paris Opera dance school at the age of ten. She took her first steps on the stage in 1929 in L’éventail de Jeanne. She joined the Opera corps de ballet in 1934 where she quickly worked her way to the top: from quadrille she directly became petit sujet without ever being Coryphée. She was named Étoile in December 1941 at the premiere of the ballet Istar choreographed for her by Serge Lifar. 

In 1947, she enjoyed tremendous success with her interpretation of the role of the shadow in les Mirages by Serge Lifar. However, her career at the Opera was rife with disputes and she left the company a number of times, particularly in 1946 when she joined Serge Lifar as guest Étoile at the Ballet de Monte-Carlo. She had already performed with this company in 1945 and after. She returned to the Paris Opera from 1947 to 1949 and set off again on a world tour from 1949 to 1952 before returning to the parent company from 1953 to 1962. Alongside this, she continued to perform under contract in various companies world-wide, as well as creating choreographies including Rendez-vous sentimental.
 

In 1970, she performed in Brazil in Buenos Aires in the solo The Dying Swan. That same year, she opened a dance school in Paris. In 1972, she bade farewell to the stage alongside Cyril Atanassoff in the role of Giselle. From 1970 to 1977, she presided over the Académie Internationale de Danse, Paris, and passed down her talent to the Opera’s Étoiles. In 1976, Yvette Chauviré performed in the play Amphitryon by Jean Giraudoux. She was also honorary president of the Association Française des Maitres de Danse Classique (A.F.M.D.C.). In 1991, she accepted to return to the stage in Switzerland to create the role of Maude for the contemporary creation of the ballet Harold and Maude by the company Sinopia Ensemble de Danse, choreographed by Etienne Frey: a role that she interpreted in turn with Rosella Hightower, on an original score by Michaël Jarell especially composed for this ballet.

She was awarded the title of prima ballerina assoluta, a distinction that is very rare. Yvette Chauviré was made Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1988 and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour in 2010.

Yvette Chauviré passed away on October 21st, 2016.

Source : Opéra National de Paris

Tina Protasoni is a filmmaker. Among her filmography, we can count the captures of spectacles such as Giselle and La Bayadère, in 2005 and 2006, interpreted by the theater of Scala's ballet.

Source : Mubi

Artistic direction: Mauro Bigonzetti

The present day Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala can boast a glorious past whose roots go back centuries to the 1778 inauguration of the world’s most celebrated musical theatre. Illustrious choreographers, such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Salvatore Viganò, were to exert great influence on dance in Europe, even before the founding in 1813 of the Imperial Dance Academy of La Scala. From here Carlo Blasis, the illustrious dancer, teacher and theorist brought Ballet into the romantic period, contributing to the technical innovation of its style. In Russia, Enrico Cecchetti, propagated the teaching of the Italian academic technique and by way of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which he had joined, elevated its status in this new era. Dance at La Scala entered the twentieth century also with renowned choreographers linked to the Ballets Russes, like  Mikhail Fokin and Leonide Massine.

From the free and expressionist dance of Middle-Europe of the thirties and forties, came, above all,  Aurel Milloss. Arturo Toscanini gave him the task of reuniting the lost threads of the Scala company after the Second World War.  For his repertoire, he not only chose great musicians, renowned set designers and painters, but also illustrious guests such as George Balanchine.
In the fifties and sixties, La Scala became a stage open to the best names of the then artistic panorama. Roland Petit made his début in 1963,  Maurice Béjart in the seventies, and many guest stars were added like Rudolf Nureyev, beginning in 1965 a very close collaboration with the Milanese theatre.
Thanks to the unfailing expressive, technical and interpretative appeal of La Scala’s étoiles Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle, Massimo Murru, guest artists, principals, newly appointed soloists, and the many Corps de Ballet members frequently selected for major roles, Makhar Vaziev’s direction (from 2009 since end of 2015) resolutely embraces a set of precise artistic standards. The aim is to reinvigorate the twentieth century’s most refreshing and influential ballet repertoire as a “tradition of the new” in the ballet world, reviving the necessary classics, providing young choreographers with creative opportunities, and drawing celebrated musical directors to the ballet rostrum, both as an element of added appeal and also as an unmistakable sign of the musical excellence that befits La Scala, not only in its operatic performances but also in its dance productions.
Under his direction, the Ballet Company's chain of command has grown in every respect. Today's principals include Nicoletta Manni and Claudio Coviello, and soloists include Massimo Garon and Marco Agostino, Virna Toppi, Vittoria Valerio,  Federico Fresi, and very young dancers trained at the Ballet School are emerging from the ranks of the Ballet Company: among them Alessandra Vassallo and Christian Fagetti, and many new dancers such as Lusymay Di Stefano,  Denise Gazzo, Timofej Andrijashenko, Nicola Del Freo and Martina Arduino, who have debuted in main roles, fulfilling the Company's brief to recognise and cast burgeoning talent. The successor of Makhar Vaziev, Mauro Bigonzetti, had to withdraw the ballet direction due to a health problem; from October 2016 the direction of the Ballet Company has been entrusted to Frédéric Olivieri.

Source: Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala 's website

More information: teatroallascala.org

Arthaus Musik is a label for classical music on DVD and Blu-ray. The company belongs to Studio Halle GmbH and maintains the subsidiary Monarda Arts.
Arthaus Musik GmbH was founded in Munich in March 2000 and has been based in Halle (Saale) since 2007. The  label has been publishing records of operas, ballets, classical  concerts, jazz, theater productions and selected documentaries on music  and the arts for thirteen years. Since then, over 700 titles have been released on DVD and Blu-ray with up to 100 releases per year.
Among  the publications are recordings with artists such as Plácido Domingo,  Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Jonas Kaufmann,  Burkard Schliessmann and conductors, such as Carlos Kleiber, Claudio  Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez and Zubin  Mehta. The  recordings come from opera houses such as La Scala, the Vienna State  Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Opéra National de Paris  and the Zurich Opera House.

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