• Stage Home
• What's On
• Features
• 
• 
• Bookmark this site

It seems fitting that as John Meehan prepares to leave his position as artistic director of the Hong Kong Ballet; he is unleashing one of his favourite ballets of all time on the Hong Kong public. Giselle is one of the Romantic era’s (1820-1900) most famed ballets, and one of Meehan’s all-time favourites (he was taught it by one of the world’s most acclaimed teachers, Vera Volkova). “I took all my knowledge from over many years and poured it into this production,” he admits.

First staged in Paris in 1841, the opening act of Giselle tells the haunting tale of a young peasant girl who falls for a young nobleman named Albrecht, and then dies heartbroken, after finding out he is betrothed to another. In the second act, a forlorn Albrecht visits the cemetery where Giselle is buried, and is assaulted by a cast of angry spirits called ‘wilis’, women who in life were also jilted lovers. Led by their queen Myrtha, they attempt to destroy the noblemen, whilst his ghostly amour attempts to save him.

“It’s a very perfect ballet,” says Meehan. “It has two beautifully contrasting and mutually complementary acts. One of which is based in reality, where you see the whole plot unfold, and the second act, largely peopled by ghosts, where you see the consequences of what happened in act one. Theatrically it’s beautifully balanced as a production; musically it’s immaculate.”

With principal dancers Faye Leung and Jin Yao in the lead role of Giselle, and principal dancer Zhang Yao and senior soloist Huang Zhen as Albrecht, Meehan has also worked closely on the production with senior ballet mistress Lin Mei-fang, who brings a subtle Chinese element to the second act. “In mainland China, there’s a wonderful history of Giselle,” says the artistic director. “They took the version they were originally taught by the Russians and made it their own. The second act is quite spectacular the way it is danced, especially by the corps de ballet.” Ballet fans would do well to catch the company in their finest form, before they move into the far more uncertain era of 2009 – sans Meehan.