| The Club's first social event this year introduced us to a magnificent production of the ballet Giselle, streamed from The Royal Opera House in London to Norden Farm in Maidenhead and 2000 other cinemas around the world. The French composer Adolphe Adam's famous opus premiered in Paris in 1841 and was hailed as a great success, an opinion that still stands. Principal ballerina Akane Takada, born in Tokyo and educated at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, gave a mesmerising performance as the peasant | girl Giselle, who discovers her lover is actually promised to another woman and in despair kills herself. Liverpool born Matthew Ball, also a Principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, was no less impressive in his roll as the aristocratic Albrecht. The whole ensemble produced a memorable, graceful and dramatic, romantic and moving performance that stayed with the audience long after the curtains fell. |
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