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IMPRESSIONS: American Ballet Theatre's "Giselle" at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center

By Henning Rübsam
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Published on July 1, 2025
Isabella Boylston and Fangqi Li. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor

Choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa
Staged by Kevin McKenzie
Music by Adolphe Adam | Orchestrated by John Lanchbery
Scenery by Gianni Quaranta | Costumes by Anna Anni
Lighting by Jennifer Tipton

Sat, June 21: Olga Smirnova as Giselle, Daniel Camargo as Count Albrecht
Mon, June 23: Devon Teuscher as Giselle, Joo Won Ahn as Count Albrecht
Wed, June 25: Isabella Boylston as Giselle, Isaac Hernández as Count Albrecht
Fri, June 27: Hee Seo as Giselle and Corey Stearns as Count Albrecht

Summer Season  at the Metropolitan Opera House

Dates: June 10 - July 19, 2025

In American Ballet Theatre's production of Giselle, Count Albrecht wants to spend a day as a commoner, and sheds his aristocratic cloak and sword to appear as if he were a village boy. The door he knocks on belongs to the house of a fair maiden named Giselle, who lives with her protective mother, Berthe. Albrecht woos Giselle; she falls for him; and somehow while seducing and deceiving her, he falls for her, as well.

In the modern world, he would take her back to the castle and earn a lot of likes on social media, but since the ballet dates from 1841, the only thing he really needs to be mindful of is social obligation. 

Enter Hilarion, the gamekeeper, to rain on Albrecht’s parade. Deeply in love with Giselle himself, Hilarion smells a rat, and eventually finds the cloak and sword, and summons the nearby royal hunting party to the village. The Prince of Courland with his daughter, Bathilde, in tow, greets Albrecht as a friend, and to Giselle’s maddening surprise, Bathilde turns out to be Albrecht’s fiancée. 

Heartbroken Giselle becomes so deliriously unhinged that her solo, aka. the “mad scene,” kills her. The guys blame each other; the mother weeps. 

Intermission 

Loyal Hilarion finds himself alone in the woods at night, and plants a cross he made of logs to mark Giselle’s grave. But is he alone? Myrta, the queen of the Wilis, surveys her territory. She presides over a vengeful coven of dead virgins who have had their hearts broken, and now are out to force any man who enters the woods after midnight to dance himself to death. Myrta and her clan make Giselle’s spirit rise from the grave to join them. But when Albrecht comes to her grave with flowers, her dead self forgives him. The rest of the Wilis have found Hilarion, who apparently doesn’t dance that much, and dies of exhaustion pretty quickly. When the Wilis find Albrecht, Giselle intervenes and dances with him to make him last. Saved by dawn’s bell, when the Wilis lose their power, Albrecht bids farewell to Giselle, who has to go back underground, as he greets a new morning. 

Shouldn’t this so-called Romantic ballet rather be classified as Gothic?

Olga Smirnova and Daniel Carmargo. Photo: HELI 
 

Olga Smirnova, the Russian guest star from the Dutch National Ballet, who had the career-smarts to leave her job as Prima Ballerina of the Bolshoi to protest Putin invading Ukraine, and thus kept her international career going, makes a good case for the Gothic. She looks doomed a minute into the ballet. Smirnova and Daniel Camargo, as Albrecht, also don’t look like they had enough rehearsal time to go over acting choices together. She signals that her character’s weak heart won’t let her have the fun that others experience; and Camargo goes quite beautifully through his motions. Thankfully, the rivalry between Albrecht and Joseph Markey’s Hilarion comes acoss clearly. Léa Fleytoux and Jake Roxander save the first act with impeccable dancing in their Peasant Pas de Deux, a divertissement with a purpose, for it shows that happiness does exist for some. 

Only when Chloe Misseldine, as Myrta, summons Smirnova does she wake up. Now one can see on what section rehearsal time was spent. Smirnova and Camargo redeem themselves, and I find it in my heart to forgive them, even though Camargo makes the odd choice of executing only one diagonal of brisés, and then adds some entrechats six to appeal to Myrta. At that point, I am still on Myrta’s side. Myrta’s assistants, Moyna (Remy Young) and Zulma (Sierra Armstrong), perform their solos excellently. The corps de ballet in the second act looks fantastic. And when Carmago finally needs to let go of the otherworldly Smirnova, I do hope she comes to visit again, perhaps in another role.

Devon Teuscher. Photo: Amos Adams
 

On Monday night, Devon Teuscher gives a well thought-out performance as Giselle that has me rooting for her. But now I realize why I was uneasy in this first act the other night, as well. The corps looks messy! One could argue that village dances should not look like military parades, and that the precision dancing should be reserved for the supernatural second act. The wannabe intellectual within me wants to consider that notion seriously, but, in the end, this former ballet student really wishes to give them extra time in the rehearsal studio to clean up their act. 

Breanne Granlund and Carlos Gonzalez deliver a fine “Peasant Pas” and Joo Won Ahn, as Albrecht, cares enough for Teuscher to make one care in return. 

However, in the second act it becomes evident that Teuscher and Ahn are mismatched. He is not strong enough to lift her with the required ease. Thin as a rail, Teuscher happens to be long and elegant, and she needs a taller and stronger partner. Ahn should be told not to bury his head in the flowers he brings to her grave, and definitely not to smell them throughout his long walk across the stage. It just looks silly. If he wants to smell flowers, he could take a whiff of the ones she leaves him later on, since her spirit has touched them. That would create a sensory connection. Who is coaching Ahn? Teuscher, who obviously puts skilled and tender loving care into her presentation, deserves another chance. Fangqi Li convinces as Myrta; and I again delight in Zulma’s variation. It’s Sierra Armstrong who reappears in the same role, and makes one think of a future Giselle. 

Isabella Boylston  and Isaac Hernández. Photo: HELI

On Wednesday, Isabella Boylston’s Giselle has me believe she is dancing Lise from La Fille mal Gardée. Her jolly charm works on me in the first act, but surely is problematic in the second. This performance shines because of its Albrecht, Isaac Hernández. Comfortably at home on stage, and clear in his gestures, he tells a gripping tale. When Hilarion, portrayed by the engaging Patrick Frenette, blows his horn to summon the royal hunting party to the scene, Hernández’s face shows how he calculates his future. You see a castle crumble in his body, as he takes you through his inner turmoil in a short sequence of inner absence and intense presence. It’s his mad scene. Boylston’s ensuing counterpoint I appreciate for its physicality. 

In the Peasant Pas de Deux, Sierra Armstrong proves that  she is even better alive than dead, and the otherwise phenomenal Michael De La Nuez reveals that he is not trained in the Bournonville style. The Danish-influenced sideway traveling step in his first variation eludes him. Hernández knows about echo location. He seems to hear a spirit’s footsteps, and positions his body accordingly. I just wish Boylston could elongate her lines, and that she possessed a more acute sense of judging distance. She bumps into a kneeling Hernández, as he waits for her to pose. In other sections, she is not at fault technically, but she competes with Hernández rather than evoke magic powers from the netherworld. Hernández opts for entrechats while gesturing desperately to Myrta, which make the jumps look somewhat unstable. It works within the storyline. As he humbly greets the dawn, and the curtain closes, I consider renaming the ballet Albrecht. 

On Friday, Hee Seo and Cory Stearns dance the leads, and prove that a long-lasting partnership can create a mesmerizing experience. Both celebrate 20 years with the company, and often dance together. For this performance of Giselle, their experience paid off with interest. Seo appears freer in her upper body than I have seen, and lights up the stage. Stearns’s perfect mix of good looks, impeccable dancing, and committed acting has me spellbound. Who wouldn’t fall for him?

While the corps de ballet in the first act is still untidy, Giselle’s mother shows what stage acting should look like for supporting characters. Brought vividly to life by Nancy Raffa, Berthe fears that her daughter might exert herself, and journeys through a warning scene in which she foretells her daughter’s death. I get goosebumps. Raffa’s every interaction is meaningful. As she pours wine for the visiting Prince, she waits to see a reaction on his face, and gets the pitcher ready to fill his goblet. This is a performance I have longed for. Is there a way for Raffa to share her insights with the other Berthes (who are dismal), and possibly the other supporting characters? 

Spectacular solos in the Peasant Pas de Deux by Yoon Jung Seo and a high-flying Takumi Miyake knock my socks off, but his partnering skills do not yet exist. 

Hee Seo and Corey Stearns. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor

Seo and Stearns float seamlessly through the second act. Remy Young, as Myrta, leads her frighteningly beautiful corps of Wilis, who breathe as one ominous organism. Stearns opts for the two brisé diagonals to change Myrta’s mind. It gives his ardent plea a spatial urgency that a series of entrechats simply does not convey. Maybe it is because his second diagonal is a bit short that Myrta stays firm, and maybe his portrayal of extreme exhaustion comes a bit too early, but Stearns deserves to be saved. Seo rises to the occasion. 

When the curtain rises after a group bow, a rain of large-petaled and expensive-looking confetti, and long and loud ovation by the audience acknowledge Seo and Stearns for their 20-year commitment to the company.

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