HCM CITY — The classical ballet Giselle will be restaged at the HCM City Opera House on Friday.

The two-act ballet was written by French dramatist and novelist Theophile Gautier and playwright Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges to music by composer Adolphe Adam.

The work was first performed by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1841.

Giselle tells the story of a young peasant girl, Giselle, who dies of a broken heart after discovering that her lover Albrecht has promised to marry someone else.

The Wilis, a group of ghostly spirits of girls who died from a broken heart, have the ability to control men and let them dance until they die. They target Albrecht, but Giselle defends him with the power of her great love.

The ballet, which premiered in HCM City in September, is directed by French dancer and choreographer Chloe Glemot and Japanese dancer Yuki Hiroshige, who will also play the roles of the leaders of the Wilis.

Đỗ Hoàng Khang Ninh, who has appeared many times in ballets such as Prokofiev’s Cinderella and Tchaiskovsky’s Nutcracker, will play Giselle.

Dancer Hồ Phi Điệp, who has won top prizes at many national dancing competitions, will play Albrecht.

Dancers and musicians from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will join the performance as well.

Glemot was trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School between 1996 and 2003. She has been a professional dancer for the American Ballet Theater in New York, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and English National Ballet in London.

In 2006, she completed her teacher training at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. She has taught ballet for children and adults at conservatories and schools in Paris.

Hiroshige began practicing ballet at the age of 11. She studied at the Australian Ballet School beginning in 1993. She was a solo dancer at the New National Theatre in 1996, and later performed at the Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre in 2005.

Glemot and Hiroshige played the roles of the Snow Queen and Dewdrop in The Nutcracker at the Opera House last December.

The performance will begin at 8pm. The Opera House is at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue and at www.tickebox.vn. — VNS