Since its premiere in Paris in 1841, Giselle has captured the imagination and torn at the heart with its Romantic tale of love, tragedy, vengeful ghosts, yearning and madness. Adolphe Adam’s exquisite music perfectly captures the ballet’s dramatic blend of real-life passions and unearthly glamour.

The story of Giselle is a classic of Romantic art. A village girl falls in love with a man who is not all he seems. When she finds out his deception, she dies of a broken heart.

Transformed into a spirit, she battles to save her lover in a wood haunted by ‘Wilis’,the ghosts of jilted women.

Adolphe Adam’s eloquent music is one of the best-loved ballet scores, and is presented here in a new recording with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. From the joyful dances as Giselle and Albrecht fall in love in Act I, to the other-worldly Wilis in Act II, this is music of constant beauty and variety.

As well as revealing the beauty of Adam’s score for the music- and ballet-lover, this album provides a new opportunity for dancers. It includes ten key solo movements performed at different speeds, designed to suit differences in choreography or in dancers’ individual physicality and technique.