![]() With its subtle, autumnal palette this is an especially beautiful and atmospheric production, but Macfarlane’s designs delineate more than time and place. Their performances will differ in colour and emphasis, but all will be framed by the designs of John Macfarlane. The present run of Giselle offers audiences no fewer than eight dancers in the title role, including much-anticipated debuts by Francesca Hayward and Yasmine Naghdi. She seems to bend musical time to her character’s inmost feelings, alternating rapturously sustained balances with flickering jetés and piqué turns of silvery fleetness. There’s an equally fine tension between Bonelli’s classical restraint and Núñez’s sensuous rubato phrasing. In Act 1 his Albrecht never doubts that Giselle is his for the taking, and Núñez’s thrilled disbelief – no other ballerina so radiantly conveys the joy of first love – is poignantly counterpointed by his insouciance. ![]() His acting is contained: a matter of being rather than doing, of attitude rather than action. Vitally, Bonelli doesn’t overplay his hand. Bonelli has always been an elegant dancer here, inspired by his ballerina, he finds a chastened nobility and a tragic depth which are truly moving. Her Albrecht was Federico Bonelli, replacing the injured Vadim Muntagirov. As the deceived village girl whose love endures beyond the grave, she dances with heart-rending immediacy and transparency. ![]() This was confirmed last week by an opening-night performance by Marianela Núñez of uncontestable greatness. At a time when the Royal is loosening its hold on the classical canon, and the lustre of its erstwhile signature work The Sleeping Beauty is fading, Giselle shines undimmed. When Peter Wright mounted Giselle for the Royal Ballet in 1985, he created a masterpiece which remains the jewel in the company’s crown.
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