The audience at the Albanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre “traveled” last night to misty Scotland, where love and dreams danced on the edge of reality and imagination.

The ballet La Sylphide delivered an enchanting evening, offering the public a masterpiece of the global classical repertoire.

The production featured the ballet company of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet, with choreography by August Bournonville and music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold, performed by the Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gridi Kraja.

The story of La Sylphide will be performed again tonight and tomorrow (4 and 5 November).

La Sylphide is one of the most magical ballets of the Romantic era. On the morning of his wedding day, James, torn between reality and dreams, awakens to a gentle kiss. Sylphide, a spirit of the air, calls him into her invisible world.

He tries to forget her, but her presence follows him everywhere. An old witch, Madge, prophesies to his fiancée, Effie, that she will marry her cousin Gurn — not James.

Caught between earthly love and ethereal passion, James follows Sylphide into her enchanted forest. In his attempt to hold on to her, he falls prey to the witch’s deception.

/a.c/