La Fille mal gardée
premiere 27, 28, and 29 March
Very few eighteenth-century ballets are still successfully performed as part of today’s international ballet repertoire, making the longevity of La Fille Mal Gardée — an enchanting comedy over 200 years old — remarkable. Written in France, the ballet has survived revolutions and social upheavals, and has crossed national borders to become a firm fixture in theatres on every continent. In spite of its venerable age, La Fille Mal Gardée successfully competes for public attention alongside more recent popular ballets.
The ballet is based on an appealingly simple plot: Lise, a young peasant girl, is reunited with her lover against the will of her mother, who had hoped to marry her off to a rich neighbour. The story is unusually balanced: the libretto, the musical themes, and the succession of mise-en-scènes form a very sound artistic basis. This is why, despite substantial differences in choreography, the numerous interpretations have always maintained a link with the original ballet by Jean Dauberval created in Bordeaux in 1789, retaining its joie de vivre and spirit of freedom.
La Fille Mal Gardée was first performed at the Maly Opera Theatre in 1937. That production was choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky, designed by Tatiana Bruni, and conducted by Pavel Feldt. A collection of articles compiled by Lyubov Blok was published for the première, including a short history of the ballet. Blok noted, in particular, that the ballet was most likely to have had its first performance in Russia in 1808 and that it had come “first-hand”, since “the ballet master at that time was the celebrated Charles Didelot, a pupil of Dauberval, who had danced for him in Bordeaux.”
La Fille Mal Gardée was next staged by the Maly Opera Theatre during the war years. The outstanding choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov, who founded our ballet company in 1933 and then returned after a break to his post of Artistic Director, staged his version of La Fille Mal Gardée while the theatre was in evacuation. The première took place in the city of Chkalov (Orenburg) on 1 May 1944.
In 1971, Oleg Vinogradov staged his production of the ballet at our theatre. The production ran for 17 seasons and was performed 183 times. In 2005, the ballet was revived in a new version and remained in the repertoire until December 2007.
The Mikhailovsky Theatre is currently rehearsing the production of La Fille Mal Gardée choreographed in 1960 by Sir Frederick Ashton, the classic exponent of British ballet, for Covent Garden. It is being staged by ballet master Mikhail Messerer, using Osbert Lancaster’s original design and John Lanchbery’s arrangement of Ferdinand Hérold’s music.
