This week we highlight French music for the stage in the mid-19th century with a couple of overtures from the comic operas and a complete performance of Adolphe Adam’s ballet Giselle, a tale of seduction, betrayal, and revenge from a cadre of ghosts. It was a hit in 1840 and in subsequent revivals into the 20th century — even including a production by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
This is French music in its olden style before the time of the impressionists, the nationalists, and the avant garde.