The neoclassical master George Balanchine may have resented the dominance that 19th century warhorses enjoyed on the ballet stage, but he made an exception for Giselle. You couldn’t watch it too often, he said. With each new viewing, there was “something in it we hadn’t seen before.” Balanchine would have approved of the Korean National Ballet. Of its many full-length story ballets, the 66-dancer South Korean company returns to Giselle the most often—about every other year. And this isn’t just anybody’s Giselle but that of the Paris Opera, home to the original production, circa 1841. Paris Opera stalwart Patrice Bart’s 1991 amendation of that original and its century and a half of accretions lives up to its glorious lineage. The acting flows into and out of the dancing as naturally as in Bournonville, and the scenario features delicious scene-setting details, such as lowlifes playing craps by lantern outside the cemetery where poor heartbroken Giselle is buried. —Apollinaire Scherr