I saw my third Giselle yesterday. The first one was in the old opera house in the 1980s, the second one in this one twenty years ago. Mostly my memories of them consist of an intense boredom.

Since last spring I've anticipated this Giselle with the attitude that nobody should be inflicted with it three times; it can be seen once for education, but anything more is too much. However, this production rented from the Oslo Ballet was delightful, even the music sounded better than I had remembered.

It was in every respect very traditional from the choreography to the sets and costumes, for which one must be grateful to David Walker. The backdrop was painted with a romantic scenery in brownish hues, there were cottages with doors and windows, the men's costumes were in renaissance style, ladies' more reminiscent of renaissance revival, just right. There was nothing that the opening-night audience in 1841 would have found strange, except maybe the apparently solid curtain that melted away - a commonplace today. Yet it was all fresh.

The painted backdrop produced, however, a bit of unintentional comedy in the second act in the form of a strange astronomical phenomenon: the full moon stood round and still in the same place through all the night till the sunrise!

I went home happy with the real full moon shining bright in the sky.