CHOREOGRAPHY
Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, revised by Marius Petipa, reproduced by Nicholas Sergeyev; production supervised and with additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, in collaboration with Tamara Karsavina
MUSIC
Adolphe Adam and Friedrich Burgmüller, partly orchestrated by Robert lrving, Gordon Jacob, John Lanchbery, and Richard Temple Savage
SCENERY & COSTUMES
James Bailey
DANCERS
Giselle: Margot Fonteyn; Count Albrecht: Michael Somes; Berthe, Giselle’s mother: Gerd Larsen; Hilarion: Leslie Edwards; Duke Courland: Derek Rencher; Bathilde: Julia Farron; Wilfred: Richard Farley; Peasant pas de deux (new woman’s variation by Ashton): Maryon Lane, Brian Shaw; Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis: Anya Linden; Two Wilis: Georgina Parkinson, Christine Beckley; Villagers, Courtiers, Wilis, etc: corps de ballet
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Ballet, Metropolitan Opera House, New York NY, 30 September 1960; Royal Opera House, London, 4 April 1961
New Stagings / Productions
Royal Ballet touring section, 1961
STAGING
Royal Ballet touring section
DANCERS
Giselle: Margot Fonteyn; Albrecht: Michael Somes; Peasant pas de deux: Lynn Seymour, Brian Shaw; Myrtha: Anya Linden
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Festival Hall, Tokyo, 17 April 1961
Royal Ballet touring section, 1968
NEW PRODUCTION
Royal Ballet touring section; production by Peter Wright, with further additions by Frederick Ashton (but omitting some from the 1960 production, including the new variation in the Peasant pas de deux)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
Peter Farmer
DANCERS
Giselle: Doreen Wells; Albrecht: David Wall; Myrtha: Shirley Grahame
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, London, 16 May 1968
Royal Ballet, 1970
STAGING
Royal Ballet; Tribute to Sir Frederick Ashton; woman’s variation from the Peasant pas de deux only
DANCERS
Ann Jenner
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, London, 24 July 1970
Royal Ballet, 1980
NEW PRODUCTION
Royal Ballet; production by Norman Morrice
SCENERY & COSTUMES
James Bailey (1951)
NOTES
This production included the woman’s variation in the Peasant pas de deux by Ashton (1960)
DANCERS
Karen Paisey
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, 3 July 1980
Royal Ballet, 1985
NEW PRODUCTION
Royal Ballet; production by Peter Wright
MUSIC
orchestrated by Henri Busser (1924)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
John F Macfarlane
NOTES
This production included the woman’s variation in the Peasant pas de deux by Ashton (1960)
DANCERS
Wendy Ellis
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, 28 November 1985
By Other Companies
State Ballet of Turkey, 1964
NEW PRODUCTION
State Ballet of Turkey
REPRODUCED BY
Joy Newton and Dudley Tomlinson
DANCERS
Giselle: Meriç Sümen; Albrecht: Sait Sömen; Peasant pas de deux: Binay Okurer, Selçuk Sayüner
FIRST PERFORMANCE
National Theatre, Ankara, 22 October 1964
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan
This listing is part of a chronology that was originally published in Vaughan’s Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (Alfred E Knopf 1976; 2nd ed., London: Dance Books, 1999) and includes new productions added since then, and up until 2007