“Giselle,” and What to Do with the Problematic Past – Part II

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

When the renowned choreographer Akram Khan was commissioned to update the classic “Giselle” for the English National Ballet, he couldn’t simply put new steps to a Romantic-era plot. Beautiful as it is, “Giselle” has a view of ideal womanhood that is insupportable in our century—and it didn’t reflect the women he knew. In Khan’s 2016 “Giselle,” the title character doesn’t chastely expire from a broken heart; she is a strong woman victimized by more powerful men. The story still culminates in an act of forgiveness, but in a way that resonates with the era of #MeToo. Vincenzo Lamagna composed the production’s new score. The producer Ngofeen Mputubwele describes the production as not simply a great modern ballet but a model for how to reimagine a story that doesn’t work anymore.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:14.7	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm Gauphin and Coutubewelle. I'm hosting today's episode.
0:22.5	Is it possible to take an old story and make it new?
0:28.4	Anyone who listens to music or watches TV or reads novels has some story they love that just doesn't fly today in some way or another.
0:39.2	One of those works for me is my favorite ballet, Giselle.
0:44.8	It is in the 1840s when Europe is in the romantic era.
0:49.9	You know, romantic era gives us Beethoven and Verdi and like, it's all about emotion and passion.
0:56.3	And Giselle comes on as this like, it's the romantic ballet.
1:01.2	It's got ghosts and death and nature, pastoral, and the supernatural and like all these elements.
1:11.5	And it influences the shows like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake
1:15.7	that we all think of when we think of ballet.
1:22.5	Okay, Giselle, here's the basic story.
1:27.4	We start the show with the peasants. This peasant girl, Giselle, here's the basic story. We start the show with the peasants.
1:29.9	This peasant girl, Giselle, she meets this peasant boy, Albrecht.
1:34.2	And she's like, aw, he's cute.
1:36.0	You know, meet cute, fall in love, great, actually, except...
1:45.0	Turns out, Albrecht is not a peasant.
1:49.5	He is a noble in disguise.
1:52.7	And he's already got a fiancé back home.
1:56.6	And then the fiancé and her peers show up and are like,
2:00.5	what are you doing? You're not one of these people. And then Giscé and her peers show up and are like, what are you doing?
2:01.2	You're not one of these people.
	...

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