The supernatural power of Giselle makes it one of the best balletic examples of the 19th-century Romantic genre.

A love that haunts. The world turns upside down for the peasant girl Giselle when she discovers her lover Albrecht is actually a nobleman promised to another. In despair, she kills herself. Her spirit joins the Wilis, the vengeful ghosts of women who have been jilted and die before their wedding day. The Wilis are hell-bent on killing any man who crosses their path in a dance to the death. Wracked with guilt, Albrecht visits Giselle’s grave, where he must face the Wilis – and Giselle’s ghost. Will he survive?

Peter Wright’s 1985 production of this quintessential Romantic ballet is a classic of The Royal Ballet repertory. Set to Adolphe Adam’s evocative score and with atmospheric designs by John Macfarlane, Giselle conjures up the earthly and otherworldly realms in a tale of love, betrayal and redemption.