La Fille Mal Gardée
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La Fille Mal Gardée (The Badly Watched Daughter) is a Ballet presented in 2 Acts, inspired Choffart's engraving of Pierre Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting Le Reprimande/Une Jeune Fille Querrillée Pa sa Mere. Originally produced and choreographed by the Balletmaster Jean Dauberval to a pastiche score of 55 themes assembled by an unknown hand. First presented under the title Le Ballet de la Paille ou Il n'est Qu'un Pas du Mal au Bien (The Ballet of Straw or There Is Only One Step From Bad to Good) by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, France on 1 July, 1789. Throughout the ballet's long performance history it has been revised many times (since it's original inception the ballet has had a total of 5 different scores, and about 8 different titles), most notably by Jean Dauberval (London, 1791), Jean Pierre Aumer (Paris, 1828), Jules Perrot (St. Petersburg, 1854), Paolo Taglioni (Berlin, 1864), Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (St. Petersburg, 1885), Bronislava Nijinska (New York City, 1940), Sir Frederick Ashton (London, 1960), Dmitri Romonov (New York City, 1972), Ivo Cramer and Jean Paul Garvier in a reconstruction of the original 1789 staging (Mulhouse, 1993), and Oleg Vinogradov (St. Petersburg, 1994). Today the ballet is essentially presented in two different versions - those derived from the late 19th century revivals of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov as revised by Alexander Gorsky in 1903, set to the 1864 score of Peter Ludwig Hertel (primarily in Russia and parts of Europe), and second, stagings of Sir Frederick Ashton's version of 1960, set to the score of Ferdinand Hérold as adapted by John Lanchbery, which is, in essence, the standard version known to modern audiences in the west.
- 1 The Birth of La Fille Mal Gardée
- 2 Jean Pierre Aumer's New Version to the music of Hérold
- 3 Paolo Taglioni's New Version to the music of Hertel
- 4 La Fille Mal Gardée in Russia
- 5 La Fille Mal Gardée in the 20th Century
- 6 Sir Frederick Ashton's New Version For the Royal Ballet
- 7 The Ballet du Rhin's Revival of the 1789 Original
- 8 Synopsis
- 9 Plot
- 10 External links
The Birth of La Fille Mal Gardée
La Fille Mal Gardée is the oldest and indeed one of the most important works in the modern ballet repertory, having been kept alive by way of many revivals for well over 200 years, a testament to ballet's enduring popularity. Regardless of how many different versions of the ballet have been staged over it's incredibly long and consistent performance history, the very simplicity of it's action has been the ballet's greatest virtue, and has given it a permanent place in the repertory of many ballet companies all over the world.
La Fille Mal Gardée was the creation of Jean Bercher Dauberval, one of the greatest choreographers of his day (who was trained under the influential teacher Noverre, and is further distinguished as the teacher of Charles Didelot, known today as "The Father of Russian Ballet"). Dauberval found his inspiration for La Fille Mal Gardée one day while in a Bordeaux print shop. There, he viewed an engraving of Pierre Antoine Baudouin's painting Le Reprimande/Une Jeune Fille Querrillée Pa sa Mere - a painting of a servant 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. This little painting amused the Balletmaster so much that he immediately set out to craft a suitable scenario for a ballet, and thus La Fille Mal Gardée was born.
The ballet was first presented by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux, France (known today as the Ballet National de Bordeaux) with Dauberval's wife, the Ballerina Mlle. Théodore as Lise (or Lison, as she was known then), the Danseur Eugène Hus as Colas (or Colin, as he was known then), and Francois Le Riche as the Widow Simone (or Ragotte, as she was known then) on July 1, 1789. Unknown to most, the ballet's original title was not La Fille Mal Gardée, but Le Ballet de la Paille ou Il n'est Qu'un Pas du Mal au Bien (The Ballet of the Straw or There Is Only One Step From Bad to Good). The work premiered to great succes with the public, and would prove to be Dauberval's most popular and enduring work.
The Music
During the time that La Fille Mal Gardée was produced, scores for ballets were often patchworks (or a pastiche) of popular melodies derived from well-known dances, songs, and most often operas. These scores were often arranged and addapted by either the lead violinist of an Opera House's orchestra, who at the time also served as conductor, of the theatre's director of music.
The "original" score of 1789 for La Fille Mal Gardée was itself an arrangement of 55 French melodies, and has survived to the present day in the form of fifteen orchestral parts at the Bordeaux Municiple Library. Whomever was responsible for arranging the music is not known for certain, as the surviving manuscript of the 1789 score does not list a composer (or more accurately, the arranger), and no known contemporary account of the original production of La Fille Mal Gardée mentions a composer. There are, however, a few possibilities - it could be that Dauberval himself arranged the score, for he certainly devised the scenario of the ballet. If it was not his work, than it was no doubt one of the musicians employed by the theatre. One very likely choice would have been Franz Beck, who at the time was Maître de Musique en Chef to the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. The other possibility is a violinist from the Grand Théâtre's prchestra, known only today as Lempereur, who had recently composed the music for a play titled Mareie Milet ou l'Héroïne villageoise, which premiered in March of 1789.
Revivals of Dauberval's Original Staging
Two years after the ballet's premiere Dauberval traveled to London to mount the work for the Ballet of the King's Pantheon Theatre, and for the occasion Dauberval changed the title of the ballet to La Fille Mal Gardée, as it is still known today. For the first performance, which took place on April 30, 1791, Dauberval's wife Mlle. Théodore reprised her role as Lise, while Dauberval's student, Charles Didelot danced Colas.
The 1789 score was absolutely loathed by the musicians of the Pantheon Theatre Orchestra. When the orchestral parts were rediscovered in 1959 by Ivor Guest and John Lanchbery, they were found to be covered with comments ranging from the witty to the crude. The title of the ballet which was sprawled atop the pages, had been crossed out by the conductor of the first London performance, and in it's place was written "Filly-Me-Gardy".
Eugène Hus, creator of the role of Colas, staged Dauberval's La Fille Mal Gardée for the Paris Opera in 1803. Prior to this production, Hus utilized the ballet's libretto in 1796 for a comic opera titled Lise et Colin, which was set to the music of Pierre Gaveux.
Jean Pierre Aumer's New Version to the music of Hérold
The choreographer Jean Pierre Aumer, a student of Dauberval, continuously revised Hus's 1803 production throughout his career as Balletmaster at the Paris Opera, even traveling to Vienna in 1809 to mount the work for the Ballet of the Burgtheater. On November 17, 1828, Aumer presented a completely new version of La Fille Mal Gardée, staged especially for the Ballerina Pauline Montessu, who danced Lise. For this revival the composer Ferdinand Hérold created an adaptation of the original score of 1789. Hérold also "borrowed" many themes from the operas of such composers as Gioacchino Rossini, Jean Paul Egide Martini, and Gaetano Donizetti.
The Fanny Elssler Pas de Deux
In 1837, the great Austrian Ballerina Fanny Elssler made her debut at the Paris Opera in Aumer's 1828 revival of La Fille Mal Gardée. As was the custom of the time, Ballerinas often commissioned new Pas and variations to be interpolated into already exsisting ballets for their own performances, and Elssler did this for her performance in the work. Making use of the extensive archives in the Paris Opera's library, the Ballerina selected her favorite themes from Donizetti's extremely popular opera L'Elisir d'Amore, and one of the library's copyists, named Aimé-Ambroise-Simon Leborne (1797-1866), assembled and orchestrated the music for her.
Paolo Taglioni's New Version to the music of Hertel
The Italian Balletmaster Paolo Taglioni, uncle of the legendary Marie, was engaged as Balletmaster to the Court Opera Ballet in Berlin throughout the 1850s and 1860s. On November 7, 1864, Taglioni presented his own completely new staging of La Fille Mal Gardée. For this production Taglioni commissioned an entirely new score from the Court Opera Ballet's resident composer of music, Peter Ludwig Hertel. This production premiered to a resounding success, and was retained in the repertory of the ballet in Berlin for many years.
In May of 1876, the great Italian Ballerina Virginia Zucchi made her debut in Taglioni's production. The celebrated Ballerina triumphed in the role of Lise, revitalizing the work with her expressive portrayl.
La Fille Mal Gardée in Russia
La Fille Mal Gardée was first staged in Russia not long after it's original premiere. The very first production of the ballet in Russia was staged by Giuseppe Solomoni for the Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre (or the Bolshoi Ballet, as it is known today) in 1800, a production that was later revised by his successor at the Bolshoi, Jean Lamiral in 1808. Dauberval's student, Charles Didelot (who had danced Colas in the London staging of 1791) was Balletmaster to the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet (or the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, as it is known today) in the early 19th century, and in 1808 he mounted the first production of La Fille Mal Gardée for the company. All of these revivals were based on the original Dauberval staging of 1791, and, of course, utilized the original pastiche score.
A restaging of Aumer's 1828 version of La Fille Mal Gardée to the music of Hérold was first staged in Russia for the Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1845 by the Balletmaster Irakly Nikitin. The great choreographer Jules Perrot, balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet from 1850 until 1859, staged his own version of Aumer's production for the company in 1854, and for this production added new music to the ballet by the composer Cesare Pugni (who was First Imperial Ballet Composer from 1850 until 1870). Perrot's staging was given for the last time in 1880.
Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's Revival
Virginia Zucchi visited St. Petersburg in 1885, performing in various theatres throughout the Imperial capital. In August of that year, the Ballerina was invited by Tsar Alexander III himself to perfom with the Imperial Ballet. It was decided that Paolo Taglioni's 1864 version of La Fille Mal Gardée to the music of Hertel would be revived especially for her debut by the great choreographer Marius Petipa and his assistant Lev Ivanov, while Zucchi herself would assist in the staging. For this production the ballet's title was changed to Vain Precautions, as it is still known in Russia, premiering on December 16, 1885. For the occasion the composer Léon Minkus (who was the Imperial Ballet's First Imperial Ballet Composer from 1871 until 1886) scored additional variations for the great Ballerina. Zucchi's performance as Lise would become legend in Russia, where she was known as "The Devine Virginia". During the famous mimed scene known as When I'm married, it was said Zucchi's charming and emotional performance made such an impression that it brought many in the audience to tears. The Ballerina was much celebrated for the famous Pas de Ruban, for which Lise and Colas dance a Pas elaborated by the use of ribbons, with Colas pretending to be a Horse and Lise running along.
After Zucchi left the stage of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (principle theatre of the Imperial Ballet until 1886), Lev Ivanov staged an abriged version of La Fille Mal Gardée for the performances at Krasnoe Selo in the summer of 1888, with the role of Lise danced by the Ballerina Alexandra Vinogradova, who also performed as Lise in October of that same year at the Mariinsky Theatre (principle theatre of the Imperial Ballet after 1886). This would be that last performance of the ballet until 1894, when Ivanov revived the ballet for the visiting German Ballerina Hedviga Hantenberg.
La Fille Mal Gardee proved to be a useful vehicle for the great Ballerinas of the Imperial Ballet, most notably Olga Preobrajenska, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, and of course, the first Russian Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya, who for a time did not allow any other Ballerina to perform the role of Lise (as she had done with Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter and La Esmeralda).
One amusing feature of the Ivanov production was the use of real chickens on stage (though in coups). One evening when Preobrajenska danced the role of Lise, her rival, Kschessisnkaya, let all of the chickens out of their coups during her variation, many of which landed in the orchestra pit! The noble Preobrajenska however, kept on dancing as if nothing happened.
Like many of the scores in use by the Imperial Ballet, by the beginning of the 20th century Hertel's music for La Fille Mal Gardée had acquired musical interpolations from many different composers - Cesare Pugni, Léon Minkus, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo, and Anton Rubinstein.
The last Imperial production of La Fille Mal Gardée was performed on September 27, 1917, only one month prior to the October Revolution, with the Ballerina Elsa Vill as Lise.
La Fille Mal Gardée in the 20th Century
On December 7, 1903, an important revival of La Fille Mal Garée was presented at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. It was mounted by Alexander Gorsky, former dancer with the Imperial Ballet, and was essentially a revision of the Imperial Ballet's production. Gorsky added "new" dances to the ballet from various other works, most notably new variations for Lise in the Pas de Deux of the second Act to the music of Drigo, from Petipa's 1900 ballet Harlequinade (Gorsky's version of this Pas de Deux is today the standard, and is today a staple of the competition circuit and gala performances). Gorsky's version would ultimately serve as the basis for nearly every production mounted in Russia and many other parts of Europe.
The first performances of the Russian La Fille Mal Gardée in the west were presented by the touring company of the legendary Ballerina Anna Pavlova, one of the greatest interpretors of Lise, who while touring London in 1912 performed in an abriged version of the ballet.
In 1930 the choreographer Asaf Messerer and the Balletmaster Igor Moiseyev mounted a new version La Fille Mal Gardée, with a basis in the Petipa/Ivanov staging, for the Bolshoi Ballet. For the production Messerer and Moiseyev added a new act to the ballet - The Wedding of Lise and Colas, which was essentially a large divertessment (in the spirit of Act III of the Petipa/Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty) to music from Mikhail Glinka's Orhpeus. This version would later be revivied at the Bolshoi under the title The Rivals, with the Hertel/Glinka music reorchestrated by Alexander Mosolov. Niether productions found a permanent place in the reperotry.
The Bolshoi again presented another production of La Fille Mal Gardée in 1937, in a completely new version staged by the choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky. For this production Lavrovsky commissioned the composer Pavel Feldt to create a new score based on the traditional music of Hertel, along with all of the interpolations the score had acquired during the late 19th century. This version premiered to a moderate success and was not long after taken out of the repertory of the Bolshoi Ballet.
For many years, the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet (the former Imperial Ballet) of St. Petersburg had no production of La Fille Mal Gardée in their active repertory. Occasionally students of the School of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet would perform the work, with the top graduates of the year in the lead roles. In 1994 the company's director Oleg Vinogradov staged a completely new version of the ballet. Unfortunately this version did not last long in the company's repertory after Vinogradov left the company as director. In 2002 the Bolshoi Ballet staged Sir Frederick Ashton's 1960 version of La Fille Mal Gardée. To date, the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet has no production of the work in thier active repertory.
La Fille Mal Gardée in the West
Bronislava Nijinska, sister of the legandary Vaslav Nijinsky, staged the first production of La Fille Mal Gardée in the United States for American Ballet Theatre (or Ballet Theatre, as it was known then) in 1940. Nijinska's version was revived in 1941 under the title The Wayward Daughter, and in 1942 under the title Naughty Lisette. The 1942 production was revised by Dmitri Romonov in 1949, and was retained in the repertory of the company for many years. Romonov returned to stage a new version of the ballet for the company in 1972, with great Ballerina Natalia Makarova as Lise.
In 1942 the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo presented their first production of La Fille Mal Gardée, staged by a former Ballerina of the Imperial Ballet, Alexandra Balachova, in a version largely based on the Petipa/Ivanov staging of the late 19th century.
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 these same dancers would use Balachova's version as a basis for many revivals throughout the world. The celebrated Ballerina Alicia Alonso danced Balachova's staging of La Fille Mal Gardée throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and she would go on to stage her own version of the work for the Cuban Ballet in 1964.
Sir Frederick Ashton's New Version For the Royal Ballet
In 1959, the choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton decided to create a completely new version of La Fille Mal Gardée for the Royal Ballet. This production premiered on September 14, 1960, with the Ballerina Nadia Nerina as Lise and David Blair as Colas, instantly becoming the definitive version of La Fille Mal Gardée, as well as a much celebrated classic of the ballet repertory.
Ashton had originally intended to use the music of Peter Ludwig Hertel for his new version, which by then was the traditional music for the ballet, having been used for nearly every revival of the ballet since the late 19th century. But after close inspection of this music Ashton found it entirely to heavy-handed and banal for the direction he wanted to take with his new production, not to mention that the score was heavily weighed-down by additional music from many composers (as with Adolphe Adam's score for Le Corsaire). At the suggestion of the ballet historian and musicologist Ivor Guest, Ashton studied the 1828 score of Ferdinand Hérold, and found the light, simple music to be perfect for his intentions. Ashton then sought out the musical talents of the Royal Opera House composer and conductor John Lanchbery to orchestrate and adapt the Hérold music. After becoming extremely frustrated with the overly simplistic and under-developed nature of the original score, the two men decided that Hérold's original music would be put to better use if it would instead serve as a foundation for an entirely new score, for which Lanchbery would present new numbers as well.
Ashton was rather dissapointed that Hérold's score contained no form of Grand Pas, and for a while considered using the well-known Pas de Deux from Hertel's score. Fortunately, Ivor Guest found a violin reduction of the Pas de Deux that Fanny Elssler had arranged for her performance in La Fille Mal Gardée in 1837, long ago tucked away in an old box of music at the Paris Opera. Today, this number is known as The Fanny Elssler Pas de Deux.
Choreographically, Ashton created some of the most masterfull dances of all his output for his new version of La Fille Mal Gardée. He resurrected the Pas de Ruban for Lise and Colas, in which the lovers perform a charming Pas with intricate tricks using a pink satin ribbon. Ashton took this idea to an entirely new level with the Fanny Elssler Pas de Deux, devising a spectacular Grand Adagio for Lise, Colas, and 8 woman with 8 ribbons. Ashton also made certain that the mimed sequence known as When I'm Married was added into the ballet, a passage that was performed by all of the great Ballerinas of old when they danced the role of Lise. Ashton learned this passage from Tamara Karsavina, former Ballerina of the Imperial Ballet and the original Ballet Russes, who herself had learned the mimed passage from her teacher Pavel Gerdt, once the Imperial Ballet's leading male dancer, who himself had partnered all of the great Ballerinas of the late 19th century and early 20th century in the role of Lise, including Virgnia Zucchi.
For the Clog Dance, performed in the ballet by Lise's mother the Widow Simone, Ashton took Lanchbery to a performance of Lancashire clog dancers to inspire him to write music for such a number. Lanchbery decided to use the theme (or lietmotive) for Simone from Hertel's score (being the only part of Lanchbery's score based on Hertel's music). Ashton fashioned a hilarious number from this music for Simone and four Ballerinas. At the beginning of the number, Lise tempts her mother with a pair of clogs, and Simone cannot resist. She then puts them on and whirls into one of Ashton's greatest numbers, which also features the dancers using the clogs to perform sur le pointe!
Ashton's 1960 version of La Fille Mal Gardee went on to be staged for many companies throughout the world, and today is perhaps the most celebrated version of La Fille Mal Gardée in the current classical ballet repertory.
In 1984, Ashton's production was filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Leslie Collier as Lise, and Micheal Coleman as Colas, and is available on DVD and video. In 1962, Lanchbery recorded excerpts of music from his adaptation of Hérold's score, and in 1983, recorded the complete work, which was not released on CD until 1991 (both recordings were released on the label Decca Records). Unfortunately, only the recording of excerpts is still in print.
The Ballet du Rhin's Revival of the 1789 Original
The performance history of La Fille Mal Gardée came full circle in 1993, when the Ballet du Rhin of Mulhouse, France presented a revival of Dauberval's original production of 1789. The production was staged by Ivo Cramer, expert on late 18th century and early 19th century dance theatre, and the Ballet du Rhin's artistic director, Jean Paul Gravier, who did painstaking research on the original production, locating a copy of the original score in Stockholm, which describes the 1789 production, including details of the original mime passages. The original score was restored and orchestrated by the conductor Charles Farncombe. The designer Dominique Delouche created sets and costumes inspired by the designs used in the original. Though Dauberval's original choreography is lost, Cramer crafted dances in the style of the period, with heavy influence on folk dancing, as in the original 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). The production was presented under the original title, Le Ballet de la Paille (The Ballet of Straw).
Synopsis
Characters in the ballet are:
- Lise — (the badly guarded daughter)
- Colas — (Lise's beloved)
- Widow Simone — (Lise's mother, traditionally danced by a man)
- Alain — (Lise's rich and dimwitted suitor)
- Thomas — (Alain's father)
- Notary
- Farm workers — friends of Lisa and Colas
- Rooster and 3 hens
Plot
Lise and Colas are in love and want to marry. However, the Widow Simone wants Lise to marry the dimwitted, but extremely rich, Alain, and has arranged for a marriage contract (between Lise and Alain) with Alain's father Thomas. The Widow Simone does her best to keep Lise and Colas apart.
It is time for the gathering of the crops and the Widow Simone and Lise are taken to the field for a picnic lunch by Thomas and Alain. The farm workers join in a ribbon dance around a maypole, and the girls also join in a clog dance with the Widow Simone. Later, there is a thunderstorm and everyone rushes for shelter. Alain is carried away on the wind by his opened umbrella.
The Widow Simone and Lise return to their home. The crops are brought in by the farm workers and the widow then leaves the house (after locking the door behind her to prevent Lise from leaving the house). Lise thinks about Colas and mimes being the mother of a large number of children. To her embarrassment, Colas suddenly rises from the stacked crops. There is the sound of the Widow Simone returning to the house and Lise and Colas look around desperately for a place for him to hide. Not finding anywhere in the living room, Lise takes Colas to her room, and she then returns to the living room just before Widow Simone enters the house. The Widow Simone orders Lise to go to her room and put on her wedding dress for her forthcoming marriage to Alain. The horrified Lise tries to remain where she is, but the Widow Simone pushes Lise into her room and locks the door.
Thomas arrives with a Notary, and his son Alain (who is still clutching his umbrella). The farm workers (who are friends of both Lise and Colas) then also arrive. Widow Simone unlocks the door to Lise's room and Lise appears in her wedding dress, accompanied by Colas. Thomas and Alain take offence - and the enraged Thomas tears up the marriage contract. Thomas, Alain and the Notary then leave the house in a huff. Lise and Colas then beg the Widow Simone to look favourably upon their suit. Love conquers all and the widow relents. Joyfully celebrating the happy outcome for Lise and Colas, everyone leaves, and the house is left quiet and empty - that is until Alain returns for his umbrella which he has accidentally left behind. So Alain is also happy with the love of his life - his umbrella.
External links
- [La Fille Mal Gardée] - about the ballet
- [La Fille Mal Gardée] - Australia Dancing
- [La Fille Mal Gardée] - Boston Ballet
- [La Fille Mal Gardée] - Pennsylvania Ballet Academy of Music
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