19th Century Romanticism Hovers, Dreamily, in ‘Giselle’

The last four decades of the 20th century have been a turbulent period for classical ballet, with all manner of staging fads reordering the traditional repertory to emphasize radical concepts of production design, psychosexual symbolism, interpolated bravura and more. Through each extreme, Alicia Alonso’s 1959 version of “Giselle” for National Ballet of Cuba has remained a hallmark of dramatic integrity, of Romantic style and of the greatness a company can achieve even when some of its finest stars are picked off, one by one, for more lucrative contracts elsewhere.

Most modern productions of “Giselle” jump-cut from one highlight to another, shortening the ballet until it becomes something of an abstraction. Alonso’s opens up cuts in the score, restores mime scenes and gives the story its full context and credibility, relying on an absolutely miraculous corps de ballet to keep interest high in the extensive passages when the principals are offstage.

That corps proved a revelation in the two “Giselle” performances the Cubans gave over the weekend at the Wiltern Theatre--consistently glorious whether you were watching the 24 elegantly menacing Wilis in the second act or the warmly virtuosic pas de dix and village celebrations of the first. No finer classical ensemble has been seen in the Southland since the same company brought its Strauss “Cinderella” to Orange County 13 months ago, no more refined and superbly detailed alignment of everyone’s steps, stance, gestures, musicality and emotional temperatures.

Alonso plausibly sees early Romantic style less in terms of displaying difficult feats than achieving magical suspensions. By carefully heightening those suspensions within the choreography, she manages to make a modern audience feel the thrill of women hovering motionless on the tips of their toes, the thrill that launched Romantic ballet to begin with. In this decade, only the Kronstam/Brenaa production of “La Sylphide” for the Royal Danish Ballet has involved Southland audiences as deeply in this bedrock issue of Romantic iconography--and it has since fallen out of the repertory. The Cuban “Giselle” thus looks more and more singular as an inspired link between the choreography of the 19th century and the dancers of the 21st.

Dancing to tape, among sets by Salvador Fernandez that have seen better decades, the two slates of principals confirmed the same enviable standards of training and coaching that the corps exemplified. On Saturday night, the tiny, powerful Lorna Feijoo emphasized shy innocence and a ravishing lightness in the title role, with her brilliant technique most evident in the long-held balances and shimmering bourrees of Act 2. Her mad scene seemed more worked through, section by section, than fully felt, but it has improved greatly since her performance at Havana’s 16th International Ballet Festival in November.

In contrast, the mad scene proved a highlight of the interpretation Sunday afternoon by Alihaydee Carren~o, cousin of Jose Manuel Carren~o, current danseur noble of American Ballet Theatre. No match for Feijoo in technique, Carren~o infused her dancing with depth of feeling from first to last, giving the role great sweetness and, in Act 2, a sense of unearthly calm.

Although not a virtuoso, Oscar Torrado brought nobility of bearing, dramatic fire and fine partnering skills to the role of Albrecht on Saturday, while Osmay Molina made a more callow if fleet-footed Silesian seducer the following afternoon.

The extensive pantomime duties of Hilarion received equal care from Jose Zamorano (Saturday) and Jorge Vega (Sunday), with the latter forceful in his last-act dance of death with the Wilis. As the Saturday evening Myrta, Viengsay Valdes danced with implacable iciness but chopped her opening solo into too many isolated segments. At the Sunday matinee, Laura Hormigon linked everything with a stony grandeur.

In both performances, Alonso’s spirited new pas de dix featured some of Havana’s most promising young artists, among them the stylish Nelson Madrigal (Feijoo’s husband) and the buoyant Joel Carren~o (Alihaydee’s half-brother). Alonso herself appeared onstage only during the Saturday curtain calls but received an ovation when entering the auditorium on Sunday.

No more performances are scheduled.