Producer
Robin Scott

Director for video
John Vernon

Performers
Lise : Lesley Collier
Colas : Michael Coleman
Widow Simone : Brian Shaw
Thomas : Leslie Edwards
Alain : Garry Grant
Village notary : Derek Rencher
Notary's clerk / cockerel : Graham Fletcher
Hens : Jennifer Jackson, Elizabeth Morgan, Julie Rose, Anita Young
Lise's Friends : Deirdre Eyden, Rosalind Eyre, Wendy Groombridge, Judith Howe, Sally Inkin, Genesia Rosato, Jacqui Tallis, Pippa Wylde
Villagers, Harvesters, Grooms : Artists of the Royal Ballet

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
John Lanchbery (conductor)


A vintage performance of one of the most loved ballets (including, of course, the famous Clog Dance) from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in January 1981.

The music for this production by The Royal Ballet is based on the Hérold score of 1828, with the additon of a few numbers from the original Bordeaux score which Hérold did not use, and a Pas de deux arranged specially for Fanny Elssler. La fille mal gardée was first performed by the Royal Ballet on 28 January, 1960 with Nadia Nerina as Lise, David Blair as Colas, Stanley Holden as Widow Simone, Leslie Edwards as Thomas and Alexander Grant as Alain. At the Tenth Anniversary Merle Park, Michael Coleman, Brian Shaw, Leslie Edwards and Alexander Grant danced the leading roles.

Created at the Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, on 1 July, 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, La fille mal gardée quickly became one of the most popular ballets of its time, and has been frequently performed in a variety of versions ever since. Its original choreographer, Jean Dauberval (1742-1806), a pupil of Noverre, had a particular gift for filling his ballets with convincing characters and situations that "spoke to the heart", and it was the very simplicity of its theme and treatment that was the secret of La fille mal gardée's success. In its historical context it represents a significant shift from the artificial conventions that dominated ballet during the greater part of the eighteenth century to a more realistic form that expressed the feelings of everyday humanity and reflected the growing social awareness of the century's close.

The ballet is associated with a host of eminent dancers. Dauberval's wife, Madame Théodore, created the role of Lise and Eugène Hus that of Colas. Hus was later to adapt the scenario for the libretto of a comic opera by Pierre Gaveaux called Lise at Colin (1796) and to stage the first Paris production of the ballet in 1803. The scenario has stood the test of time, remaining today as it was in 1789. The first London performance took place on 30 April, 1791, at the Pantheon Theatre, with Charles Didelot and Madame Théodore as the lovers, and the ballet reappeared at intervals at the King's Theatre until 1815, when the great Auguste Vestris, who had not been seen in London since before the French Revolution, appeared as Colas at the age of 55.

In 1828, the ballet entered the repertory of the Paris Opéra with Pauline Montessu as Lise. For this version, Ferdinand Hérold revised the original score, retaining the best passages, interpolating several borrowed numbers, and generally modernising the orchestration. It was to this score, with additions, that Fanny Elssler, the Viennesse dancer renowned for her dramatic qualities danced Lise in Paris in 1837 with a success which she repeated when she visited Russia eleven years later.

In 1864, the ballet acquired another score, by Peter Ludwig Hertel, when Paul Taglioni revived it at the Royal Opera House, Berlin. Hertel's score was later adopted in Russia, where another great dramatic dancer, Virginia Zucchi, appeared as Lise in 1885. Russian interpreters of the role of Lise have included Kshesinska (1896), Preobrajenska (1906), and Karsavina (1915). Pavlova presented a condensed version of the ballet at the Palace Theatre, London in 1912, with herself and Novikoff as the lovers, and later productions include versions by Nijinska in 1940, for Ballet Theatre, for which Baronova danced Lise in 1941, and by Balashova in 1946, for the Nouveau Ballet du Monte Carlo.