GRISI, CARLOTTA

original name Caronne Adele Josephine Marie Grisi born June 28, 1819, Visinada, Istria, Austrian Empire [now Vizinada, Croatia] died May 20, 1899, Geneva, Switz. Italian ballerina who created the title role in the Romantic ballet Giselle in 1841 at the Paris Opra. Grisi studied at the ballet school of La Scala, Milan, and began her career at the age of eight. After dancing with Jules Perrot in Naples in 1834, she became his pupil and later his wife. Brilliant successes in Vienna and London were followed by an engagement at the Paris Opra in 1841, where Grisi was spectacularly acclaimed. Thophile Gautier, who adapted Giselle from legend, saw her as an ideal combination of Marie Taglioni's ethereal lightness and Fanny Elssler's robust warmth and fell in love with her. Eventually she left Perrot for Lucien Petipa, her partner. Grisi also created La Pri (1843), Esmeralda (1844), Paquita (1846), and one of the roles in Perrot's Pas de quatre (1845) in London with Taglioni, Fanny Cerrito, and Lucile Grahn. She appeared in Russia (1850) and retired to Geneva at the age of 35.