See all

Live in cinemas: Giselle

Ballet and dance

Experience the quintessential Romantic ballet in Peter Wright’s atmospheric and bewitching production. Watch Giselle live in cinemas from Tuesday 3 March 2026.

More information available soo

Nine ballet dancers stand on stage. They are all wearing the same white lace dress, pink pointe slippers, and a white translucent veil that is draped over their heads giving them ghostly appearances. They also have small translucent jeweled wings on their backs. They all hold their arms in front of them, their hands crossing over their wrists. They are Artists of The Royal Ballet performing in Giselle.

Scroll Down

About
Story
Background
Cast and Creatives
Donate

The supernatural power of Giselle makes it one of the best balletic examples of the 19th-century Romantic genre. Watch live in cinemas from Tuesday 3 March 2026.

Running time

The screening lasts approximately 2 hours 20 minutes, including one interval

Guidance

Parental guidance recommended

#royaloperahouse

Infatuation. Betrayal. Redemption?

The ballet dancer Marianela Nuñez, performing as Giselle, stands on a wooden carriage draped with grapes. She is wearing a brown corset over a cream dress and a flower headdress and holds up twigs and flowers. A dancer wearing a brown jacket, boots and belt puts one arm around her. Dozens of dancers stand or kneel around the carriage holding one arm up towards her. The scenery on the stage is set to look like a rural-style brushwork painting with cottages and trees.

Live in cinemas: Giselle

The world turns upside down for the peasant girl Giselle when she discovers her lover Albrecht is actually a nobleman promised to another. In despair, she kills herself. Her spirit joins the Wilis, the vengeful ghosts of women who have been jilted and die before their wedding day. The Wilis are hell-bent on killing any man who crosses their path in a dance to the death. Wracked with guilt, Albrecht visits Giselle’s grave, where he must face the Wilis – and Giselle’s ghost. Will he survive?

Background

From earthly to otherworldly

Peter Wright’s production for The Royal Ballet was created in 1985. With designs by John Macfarlane and set to Adolphe Adam’s score, this production conjures up two distinctly vivid realms, transporting audiences from the pastoral idyll of Act I to the menacingly moonlit graveyard of Act II as the tragic story unfolds.

The quintessential Romantic ballet

The supernatural power of Giselle makes it one of the best balletic examples of the 19th-century Romantic genre. The plot’s themes of love, betrayal and redemption were inspired by Heinrich Heine’s De l’Allemagne and Victor Hugo’s poem Fantômes. The spectral beauty of the ballet is at its height during the Dance of the Wilis in Act II, where the Wilis gather around Giselle’s grave – also a moment of technical brilliance for the Company’s corps de ballet. Since its first performance in Paris in 1841, Giselle continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

Cast and Creatives

Creatives

Choreography

Marius Petipa

After (Original Choreography)

Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot

Music

Adolphe Adam

Music Edited by

Lars Payne

Scenario

Théophile Gautier

After (Original scenario)

Heinrich Heine

Production and Additional Choreography

Peter Wright

Designer

John Macfarlane

Original lighting

Jennifer Tipton

Lighting re-created by

David Finn

Donate

The Royal Ballet and Opera is a charity and relies on your support. No matter the size, every gift is critical to our work and helps us to secure the future of ballet and opera.

Your donation will enable us to keep extraordinary work on our stages, inspire the next generation and support the Royal Ballet and Opera's community of artists, technicians and craftspeople.

For people, not profit. Making world class ballet and opera for everyone.

Donate now

HELP

Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company number 480523) Charity Registered (Number 211775)