2-995-584 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from the opera of "The Night Dancers", at the Royal English Opera, Covent Garden, 1860. London stage production. 'The accompanying Illustration represents the most striking situation in this opera - the scene which forms the conclusion of the first act. The villagers are assembled to celebrate the nuptials of the rustic heroine, Giselle, with her lover Albert. The dance is broken off by the entrance of the Duke of Silesia and his daughter Bertha, followed by huntsmen and attendants; and the Duke discovers that Albert, the seeming peasant, js his nephew, who is betrothed to his daughter. Giselle is struck with horror by this fatal disclosure, and her noble rival, pitying her distress, generously renounces her claim to Albert's hand. But it is too late. The blow has been fatal, and Giselle falls lifeless into some of the female villagers' arms, while the persons present are grouped around in attitudes of astonishment and sorrow. The abbey bell begins to toll, the abbot and monks enter in procession, and, at the end of a solemn requiem, the curtain falls'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.