Marius petipa's 'Giselle'

First staged performance-1884
Company that performed the ballet- Ballet du Theatre de l'Academie Royale de Musique
Principle dancers of the first performance-Maria Gorshenkova as Giselle

Act One

• In the village in daytime

Giselle is a peasant girl who loves her neighbour, Loys-this is count Albrecht in disguise. Hillarian is a fellow peasant who loves Giselle with all his heart and he find out who Loys really is. During a party, the Royals arrive including Count Albrecht and he is meant to be marrying Bathilde. Hillarian then reveals who Loys really is to everybody at the party. This causes Giselle to go mad with grief and kills herself.

Act Two

• In a forest at night-time

It is midnight and Hillarian is at Giselle's grave-side and he meets the wilis. Giselle becomes a Wilis-the Wilis are the ghosts of people who have died before they got married, they seek revenge on all men and dance them to their death. Queen Myrtha is their leader. Count Albrecht turns up and brings white flowers to her grave and she appears to him. The wilis dance Hillarian to his death and they also try to kill Count Albrecht. Even though he lied to Giselle about who he was she still loves him so much so she pleads with Queen Myrtha to let him live. Dawn arrives and the wilis leave Count Albrecht to live.

http://www.theballetbag.com/2011/01/11/giselle/

Putting Giselle into Context
Changes of control of power in the world-Queen Myrtha is the wilis' leader, she is in control and has the power, however, Giselle stands her ground and succeeds in taking control of the decision not to kill Count Albrecht.
New Technologies such as the Gas Light-used in the night-time scene to convey that the scene is supposed to be a night. Gives a more effective staging.
Escapism from a Hard Life-Celebrating a good harvest, forgetting the hard times and focusing on the good time which they are having now. It has a romantic plot and people dance around including fairies which conveys this. People are watching and it forces you to forget and escape from the hard times and things.
Challenging Class Differences-When Count Albrecht loves Giselle even though she is a peasant girl and he is of a much higher class and then she makes a stand and saves his life-this shows she had more power and control than a girl of her class should.
Women can also be Powerful-The wilis dance the men to their deaths; they are soft, floaty, seductive, sexy however, deadly. They are getting revenge for not having a man.

• Love is conveyed in the ballet when Giselle saves Count Albrecht from being danced to death by the wilis because she is still so deeply in love with him.
• Trust is conveyed in the ballet when Giselle trusts Loys however, he then betrays her trust as he is not who she thinks he is. This trust is then regained when he appears at her grave-side.
• Death is conveyed in the ballet when the wilis dance the men to death including Hillarian.
• Class Society is conveyed in the ballet when Giselle is a peasant girl and she believes that Loys (Count Albrecht) is also her class.