A Turn-of-Our-Century ‘Giselle’

For the first-ever San Francisco Ballet staging of “Giselle,” artistic director Helgi Tomasson went to extraordinary lengths to research the performance history and lore of this 158-year-old classic--only to end up with a version that focuses on our own millennial balletic priorities.

At its premiere, Thursday in the War Memorial Opera House, Tomasson’s “Giselle” restored a number of traditionally deleted passages in the original Adolphe Adam score, most notably an authentic pas de deux for Giselle and the disguised Count Albrecht just before his unmasking in Act 1. It even managed to give us the exact name and location of what is generally regarded as the mythical Rhineland village where the action takes place: Thuringen, right below the towering castle Schloss Burgk.

But in place of anything resembling Romantic style, Tomasson delivers sleek, late-20th-century neoclassicism, replete with stratospheric extensions, fancy post-Bolshoi air turns in his new Act 1 pas de cinq and contemporary approaches to the ensemble women--putting the peasants in toe shoes rather than heels, for example, and presenting the Wilis as a formal showpiece-corps rather than a cadre of dead killers. Moreover, no hint of the ballet’s 1841 ending (or music) is allowed to spoil our cherished illusions that Albrecht will forever remain in lonely vigil beside Giselle’s grave.

Danish designer Mikael Melbye reinforces turn-of-our-century tastes with an emphasis on massive set units instead of painted vistas and an indulgence in costume overkill. Giselle and her mother now live in an upscale two-story chalet and the arrival of the noble hunting party becomes a glitz parade rivaling the Oscars. Bathilde, for instance, turns up terminally florid in a green jacket, red skirt and gloves, white bodice and gold hat--all intricately patterned, ornamented or bejeweled.

Melbye’s most grandiose innovation comes at the beginning of Act 2, with the Queen of the Wilis’ magic causing an impenetrably thick grove of trees to part and form an open space for the Wilis. Unfortunately, the sequence--which also incorporates lighting and smoke effects plus a flying mannequin--prevents the audience from seeing Giselle’s luckless swain Hilarion until he’s chased onstage by the Wilis much later. So we never know that he’s in the forest to mourn Giselle and his death becomes just another meaningless act of violence used to tweak our attention: Gamekeeper mysteriously drowns, film at 11.

Southland audiences can weigh the Tomasson/Melbye “Giselle” against previous versions when it plays the Orange County Performing Arts Center in October. On Thursday, San Franciscans warmly welcomed the first of five alternating casts, expressing special enthusiasm for the superbly refined 24-member Wilis corps. Tomasson keeps the Wilis veiled through their first dances and the gauze drifts about them like mist as they bend and sway on the floor--one of the staging’s most poetic effects.

The casting of Ukrainian danseur noble Yuri Possokhov as Albrecht guaranteed even greater poetic refinement along with exemplary partnering prowess and secure if muted bravura. Helplessly, almost boyishly, in love with Giselle from his first entrance, this Albrecht recklessly betrayed Giselle and then his fiancee Bathilde in the mad scene, ultimately reaching profound grief and penitence in the forest. Unfortunately, his Act 2 tunic not only made him look bulky but stuck out stiffly during his supple backbends.

In her debut as Giselle, the much-heralded 23-year-old Spanish ballerina Lucia Lacarra offered a down payment on an impressive future portrayal: dramatically apt and sometimes even deep but small in scale; technically spotty especially in the celebrated and mostly interpolated tests of balance in both acts. She and Possokhov look fabulous together--both are long-limbed beauties with airy jumps--and their mime scenes sustained a glorious tenderness.

Although she sometimes raced ahead of the music, French principal Muriel Maffre brought steely authority to the role of Queen Myrta, dominating the new scenic effects as much as possible and gamely executing such new duties as yanking off Giselle’s veil (no invisible wires in this staging). Australia’s Damian Smith played Hilarion sympathetically and brought real heat to his mime scenes--but his bizarre leatherboy outfit (complete with codpiece) has got to go.

Tomasson’s new pas de cinq proved only half as interesting as Alicia Alonso’s new pas de dix in the National Ballet of Cuba’s “Giselle,” but Guennadi Nedviguine enlivened it with his exciting virtuosity. Sabina Allemann made an enjoyably snooty Bathilde and with veteran company principal Anita Paciotti strongly cast as Berthe, for once Giselle wasn’t older than her mother. Emil de Cou’s conducting favored strangely fluctuating tempos, but the orchestra played capably.

* Alternating San Francisco Ballet casts dance “Giselle” through April 18 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave. at Grove Street, San Francisco. $12-$115. (415) 865-2000. From Oct. 6-10, the production plays the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $10-$68. (714) 556-ARTS.