Review: 'Giselle' reunited Hallberg and Osipova, but only for an act

Matthew Ball, a first soloist who recently made his debut in the role, would take his place.

Judging by the loud groan, it was a huge disappointment for the audience, many of whom had probably never seen Hallberg perform with Osipova, a principal with the Royal Ballet since 2013.

And how must he have felt? Hallberg returned to the stage just 14 months ago, after a 2 1/2-year injury-filled break and a painful, painstaking fight back to physical prowess. (Dancing with Osipova again, he has said, was one of his strongest motivations.)

Until the announcement, there was little indication of a problem. Albrecht, the nobleman who disguises himself as a peasant to court the lovely village girl Giselle, doesn’t have a great deal of dancing in Act 1. If Hallberg seemed slightly muted in those passages, with legs and jumps kept low, it was in keeping with the effortless air of nobility that he brought to the role from the moment he arrived on stage.

His Albrecht is genuinely infatuated with Giselle, rather than a cad with a seduction plan. By the end of the act, Hallberg seemed aware of the depth of his feelings, appalled by the vast error and consequences of his actions.

That he could convey all this while negotiating a just-suffered injury is a tribute to his artistry and to that of Osipova, who offered a rivetingly original account of the role.

Most ballerinas play Giselle as a shy, charming, innocent village girl who readily falls for the mysterious (and perhaps calculating) stranger she has just met.

Osipova’s Giselle may be naive, but she rushes at life with gusto and sensuality. The moment when Osipova and Hallberg first lock eyes has a Romeo and Juliet electricity: You can almost see the shock of physical sensation and recognition, and feel the inexperienced Giselle’s confusion and momentary fear at these unfamiliar emotions.

But her passion overwhelms that fear; for once, the character’s love of dancing — an idea stated repeatedly in the first act — is perfectly aligned with her take-no-prisoners personality.

There is a wildness, sometimes even an ungainliness in Osipova’s dancing here that suggests how her Giselle is animated by raw emotion.

When she dances for the courtiers who have turned up during a hunt, a sustained balance in arabesque becomes an expression of sheer joy, her final circle of chainés — quick whirling turns done in a circle — a thrilling expression of an uncontainable inner vitality.

This all goes a long way in explaining Albrecht’s growing enthrallment.

But Giselle has a weak heart, something Osipova points up more acutely than most interpreters, with small private moments of pain. When she discovers Albrecht’s betrayal, the shock is greater than she can withstand. She goes heartbreakingly, unprettily mad, then dies. (I cried.)

In Act 2, Giselle has been transformed into a Wili, one of the vengeful ghosts of jilted women who haunt the forest at night. Osipova’s extraordinary high, weightless jumps and almost uncannily floating arms were thrillingly beautiful. In her tender passion for Albrecht, and her fearless confrontation with the Wilis as she protected him, you could recognize the impetuous, passionate girl of Act 1.

Ball, who had performed Albrecht only once before, did heroic duty in stepping into Hallberg’s shoes. Although he and Osipova have rarely danced together, there was no visible strain or discordance in their pas de deux, and he offered a convincing account of Albrecht’s back-from-the-brink despair as Giselle finally vanished forever.

Afterward, as the curtain rose on the cast, Osipova pushed Ball forward and applauded. The day was saved. Now let’s hope that Hallberg will be back for his next scheduled “Giselle” here, on March 9.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.