Demis Volpi retells the story of “Giselle”, who dies of a broken heart, with the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf: queer, feminist, polyamorous.
If you want to become famous as a choreographer, you have to put a trio of works on your agenda: “Swan Lake”, Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du printemps” and “Giselle”, the romantic melodrama par excellence. In 1841 it was first performed on the stage of the Paris Opera and from there all over the world, but it never became as iconic as “Swan Lake”, which was later watered in Russia. Düsseldorf’s ballet director Demis Volpi is now daring to do his own reading of the material, the template for which was provided by Heinrich Heine – setting: the Rhineland.