Live in cinemas: Giselle
Live in cinemas: Giselle
Live in cinemas: Giselle
Experience the quintessential Romantic ballet in Peter Wright’s atmospheric and bewitching production. Watch Giselle live in cinemas from Tuesday 3 March 2026.
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.
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.
Infatuation. Betrayal. Redemption?
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
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.
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company number 480523) Charity Registered (Number 211775)