La fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée is one of the oldest and most important works in the modern ballet repertory, having been kept alive throughout its long performance history by way of many revivals.The appealing simplicity and the naïve familiarity of the action of La Fille mal gardée have lent it a popularity that has established it in the repertory of many ballet companies all over the world.The painting showed a girl in tears with her clothes disarrayed being berated by an old woman (presumably her mother) in a hay barn, while her lover can be seen in the background scurrying up the stairs to the safety of the loft.When the orchestral parts were rediscovered in 1959 by the ballet historian and musicologist Ivor Guest and the conductor John Lanchbery, they were found to be covered with comments ranging from the witty to the crude.Prior to this production, Hus utilised the ballet's libretto in 1796 for a comic opera titled Lise et Colin, which was set to the music of Pierre Gaveaux.In 1837, the great Austrian Ballerina Fanny Elssler made her debut at the Paris Opéra in Aumer's production of La Fille mal gardée.Making use of the extensive archives in the Paris Opéra's library, the ballerina selected her favourite airs from Donizetti's extremely popular score for the opera L'elisir d'amore.Elssler's Grand pas was resurrected by the musicologist and historian Ivor Guest for Ashton's 1960 production of La Fille mal gardée for the Royal Ballet.On 7 November 1864, Taglioni presented his own completely new staging of La Fille mal gardée under the title Das schlecht bewachte Mädchen (The Badly Guarded Girl).A production of Jean-Pierre Aumer's 1828 version of La Fille mal gardée, set to the music of Hérold, was first staged in Russia at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in 1845 by the Balletmaster Irakly Nikitin.The director Vsevolozhsky was required to pay an extremely high price to obtain Hertel's score from Berlin, while Zucchi herself commanded large fees plus a benefit performance in her contract.La Fille mal gardée proved to be a useful vehicle for the great ballerinas of the old Imperial stage, most notably Olga Preobrajenskaya, Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina.In 2015 the choreographer and historian Sergei Vikharev staged a production of La Fille mal gardée for the State Ballet of Ekaterinburg that utilized the notation from the Sergeyev Collection.This version was staged by Alexander Gorsky, a former danseur of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres who served as Premier maître de ballet of the Moscow troupe.Gorsky's version used much additional music added to the score of Hertel, including pieces by Cesare Pugni, Ludwig Minkus, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo and Anton Rubinstein.In 1930 the choreographers Asaf Messerer and Igor Moiseyev mounted a new version La Fille mal gardée for the Bolshoi Ballet, which was based on the 1903 edition by Gorsky.For this production Messerer and Moiseyev added a new act to the ballet titled The Wedding of Lise and Colas, set to an arrangement of music taken from Glinka's Orpheus.[clarification needed] Messerer and Moiseyev's version remained in the Bolshoi Theatre's repertory for only two years, and was then revived under the title The Rivals in 1935, with the Hertel/Glinka music revised by the conductor Alexander Mosolov.Many famous dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland, Susan Jaffe, Cynthia Gregory, Fernando Bujones and Marianna Tcherkassky triumphed in the lead roles.Many of the dancers who worked with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo went on to have successful careers as choreographers, teachers and balletmasters abroad, and would use Balachova's version as a basis for many revivals throughout the world.As a result, the majority of ballet companies in the Caribbean and South America regularly perform productions derived from Alonso's staging to the music of Hertel.In 1959, the choreographer Frederick Ashton began creating a completely new version of La Fille mal gardée for the Royal Ballet of London.This production premiered on 28 January 1960,[3] with the ballerina Nadia Nerina as Lise, David Blair as Colas, Stanley Holden as the Widow Simone, and Alexander Grant as Alen.At the suggestion of the ballet historian and musicologist Ivor Guest, Ashton found the light, simple music of the 1828 score by Ferdinand Hérold, more suitable for his conception.Ashton took this idea to an entirely new level with the Fanny Elssler pas de deux, devising a spectacular Grand adage for Lise, Colas and eight women with eight ribbons.After Ashton's death, the rights to his staging of La fille mal gardée passed to Alexander Grant, the original performer of the role of Alain.The performance history of La Fille mal gardée came full circle in 1989, when the Ballet du Rhin of Mulhouse, France presented a revival of Dauberval's original production of 1789.Cramer also restored the original scheme for the ballet's finale, in which the dancers, singing along with the music, shout out the refrain Il n'est qu'un pas du mal au bien ("There is Only One Step from Bad to Good").
La fille mal gardée (Ashton)The Wayward Daughter (novel)Nadia NerinaDavid BlairFrederick AshtonJean DaubervalGrand Théâtre de BordeauxBordeauxComic balletFrenchPierre-Antoine BaudouinBallet MasterpasticheAlexander GorskyPeter Ludwig HertelBolshoi TheatreMarius PetipaLev IvanovImperial BalletSt. PetersburgPaul TaglioniKönigliches OpernhausRoyal BalletJean-Georges NoverreCharles DidelotFranceEugène HusPantheon, LondonBallet of the King's Pantheon TheatreIvor GuestJohn LanchberySalle de la rue de RichelieuSalle Le PeletierPierre GaveauxJean-Pierre AumerViennaBallett des imperialen Hoftheater nächst der BurgPauline MontessuFerdinand HéroldJean Paul Egide MartiniGaetano DonizettiFanny ElsslerL'elisir d'amoreAimé-Ambroise-Simon LeborneGrand pasVirginia ZucchiRussiaRussianMichael Maddox's Petrovsky TheatreImperial Bolshoi Kamenny TheatreCatterino CavosJules PerrotCesare PugniPavel GerdtEmperor Alexander IIIIvan Vsevolozhskybenefit performanceLudwig MinkusKrasnoe SeloAlexandra VinogradovaMariinsky TheatreOlga PreobrajenskayaAnna PavlovaTamara KarsavinaMathilde Kschessinskaya1917 revolutionOctober RevolutionStepanov method of choreographic notationNicholas SergeyevSwan LakeThe Sleeping BeautyThe NutcrackerCoppéliaGiselleSergeyev CollectionHarvard University LibrarySergei VikharevLéo DelibesRiccardo DrigoAnton RubinsteinVaganova SchoolAsaf MessererIgor MoiseyevGlinkaOrpheusAlexander MosolovLeonid LavrovskyPavel FeldtOleg VinogradovLa Fille mal gardéeBronislava NijinskaAmerican Ballet TheatrePatricia BowmanNatalia MakarovaMikhail BaryshnikovGelsey KirklandSusan JaffeCynthia GregoryFernando BujonesMarianna TcherkasskySir Frederick AshtonBallet Russe de Monte-CarloAlexandra BalachovaAlicia AlonsoCuban BalletCaribbeanClaude BessyBallet School of the Paris OpéraJean-Michel DamaseStanley HoldenAlexander GrantRoyal Opera HouseGrand adageOriginal Ballet RusseWill TuckettLancashireclog dancersleitmotivParis Opéra BalletPalais GarnierDorothée GilbertNicolas Le RicheDecca RecordsBallet du RhinMulhouseIvo Cramer