La Fille Mal Gardée
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
La Fille Mal Gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is a Ballet presented in 2 Acts, inspired by 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 Ballet Master Jean Dauberval to a pastiche score adapted from 55 French themes by an unknown hand. The ballet was 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 its long and complex performance history La Fille Mal Gardée has been revised many times. It has had eight changes of title, and no fewer than five different scores, two of which were adaptations of older music. Nowadays the ballet is normally presented in one of two different versions. In Russia and parts of Europe it is usually performed in the late 19th century revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov as revised by Alexander Gorsky in 1903, set to the 1864 score of Peter Ludwig Hertel. Modern audiences in the west know the version of 1960 by Sir Frederick Ashton, set to the score of Ferdinand Hérold adapted by John Lanchbery.
The oldest, and one of the most important, works in the modern ballet repertory, it has been kept alive by way of many revivals for well over 200 years. Its appealling simplicity and the naïve familiarity of its action have lent it a popularity that has established it in the repertory of many ballet companies all over the world.
[edit] The birth of La Fille Mal Gardée
La Fille Mal Gardée was the creation of Jean Bercher Dauberval, one of the greatest choreographers of his day. He 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". Legend has it that 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, in which a servant girl in tears with her clothes disarrayed is 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. Allegedly this quaint 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) on July 1, 1789. Dauberval's wife, the Ballerina Mlle. Théodore, danced the part of Lison (known as Lise in more modern versions), the Danseur Eugène Hus was Colin (Colas in modern versions), and Francois Le Riche was the Widow Ragotte (known as Simone in modern versions). 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 met with public success, and proved to be Dauberval's most popular and enduring work.
[edit] The music
In the late eighteenth century, scores for ballets were often patchworks (or pastiches) of popular melodies derived from well-known dances, songs, and operas. These scores were often arranged and adapted by either the theatre's director of music, or by the lead violinist of the Opera House's orchestra, who at the time also served as conductor (the separate role of orchestral conductor was not then established).
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 Municipal Library. The surviving manuscript of the 1789 score does not list a composer (or more accurately, an arranger), and no known contemporary account of the original production of La Fille Mal Gardée mentions a composer. It is possible that Dauberval himself arranged the score, for he certainly devised the ballet's scenario, and was a competent violinist. If it was not his work, than it may have been one of the musicians employed by the theatre. A likely candidate 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 orchestra, 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.
[edit] 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 - which remains the title of the work 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 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. In the original manuscript the title of the ballet was sprawled atop the pages. The lead violinist (then the conductor) of the first London performance, crossed out the title, and in its place wrote "Filly-Me-Gardy".
Eugène Hus, creator of the role of Colas, staged Dauberval's La Fille Mal Gardée for the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique (or the Paris Opera Ballet, as it is known today) 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.
[edit] 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 Ballet Master at the Paris Opera. He traveled 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.
[edit] 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), assembled and orchestrated the music for her.
[edit] Paul Taglioni's new version to the music of Hertel
The Italian choreographer Paul 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 portrayal.
[edit] La Fille Mal Gardée in Russia
La Fille Mal Gardée was first staged in Russia not long after its original premiere. The very first production of the ballet in Russia was staged by Giuseppe Solomoni for the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre (now known as the Bolshoi Ballet) 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 Ballet Master to the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet (now known as the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet) 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 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 Moscow Imperial 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. Perrot's staging was given for the last time in 1880 as a benefit performance for the Imperial Ballet's Jeune Premiere Danseur Pavel Gerdt.
[edit] Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's revival
The Ballerina Virginia Zucchi toured St. Petersburg in 1885, performing successfully 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 Paul 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 some of Taglioni's original dances. For this production the ballet's title was changed to Vain Precautions, as it is still known in Russia, premiering on December 16/28 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1885. For the occasion the composer Léon Minkus scored additional variations for the great Ballerina.
Zucchi's performance as Lise would become legendary in Russia, where she was known as "The Divine 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 Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (principal 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. She also performed the role in October of that same year at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre (principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet after 1886). This was the last performance of the ballet until 1894, when Ivanov revived the ballet for the visiting German Ballerina Hedwige Hantenbürg, and thereafter the work found a permanent place in the Imperial Ballet's repertory.
La Fille Mal Gardée proved to be a useful vehicle for the great Ballerinas of the Imperial stage, most notably Olga Preobrajenskaya, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, and 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).
A feature of the Ivanov production was the use of live chickens on stage. One evening when Preobrajenskaya danced the role of Lise, her rival, Kschessisnkaya, let all of the chickens out of their coups during her variation, and many of them landed in the orchestra pit. Preobrajenska 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 hardships brought upon the Russian ballet as a result of the 1917 revolution caused a substantial number of works in the Imperial Ballet's repertory to cease being performed, with many of them leaving the stage forever, and becoming lost. The last Imperial production of La Fille Mal Gardée was given its final performance on September 27/October 1 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1917, only one month prior to the October revolution, with the Ballerina Elsa Vill as Lise.
[edit] The Notation of the Imperial Ballet's Production
As with many of the works that comprised the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet's repertory at the turn of the 20th century, the Petipa/Ivanov/Hertel production of La Fille Mal Gardée was notated in the method of Stepanov Choreographic Notation by the company's régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev and his team of notators around 1900. When Sergeyev left Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution he took the notations with him to the west, and used them to stage such ballets as the Petipa/Ivanov Swan Lake, Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, the Imperial Ballet's original 1892 The Nutcracker, the Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti Coppelia, and Petipa's definitive Giselle for the first time outside of Russia.
Today all of these notations, including the notations for the original Petipa/Ivanov La Fille Mal Gardée, are part of a collection known as the Sergeyev Collection which is today housed in the theatre collection of the Harvard University Library. To date, no ballet company has utilized the notations and the accompanying piano reduction of Hertel's score for La Fille Mal Gardée to reconstruct the original Petipa/Ivanov choreography.
[edit] La Fille Mal Gardée in the 20th century
On December 7, 1903, an important revival of La Fille Mal Garée was presented at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. Mounted by Alexander Gorsky, former dancer with the Imperial Ballet, it 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 Harlequin's Millions (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 ultimately served as the basis for nearly every production subsequently 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 interpreters of Lise, who while touring London in 1912 performed in an abriged version of the ballet.
In 1930 the choreographers Asaf Messerer and Igor Moiseyev mounted a new version La Fille Mal Gardée, based on the Petipa/Ivanov staging for the Bolshoi Ballet, while adding a new act to the ballet - The Wedding of Lise and Colas, a large divertessment to music from Glinka's Orhpeus. This version was later revived at the Bolshoi as The Rivals in 1935, with the Hertel/Glinka music reorchestrated by Alexander Mosolov. Neither production found a permanent place in the repertory.
The Bolshoi 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 mounted a new staging of the ballet, with a large basis in the traditional Petipa/Ivanov/Gorsky productions from the turn of the 20th century. 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. The Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet currently has no production of the work in their active repertory.
[edit] La Fille Mal Gardée in the west
Bronislava Nijinska, sister of the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky, staged the first production of La Fille Mal Gardée in the United States for American Ballet Theatre (then known as the Ballet Theatre) 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 the 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.
In 1972 the Balletmaster Claude Bessy staged his version of La Fille Mal Gardée for the Paris Opera Ballet School, with sets and costumes by Dimitri Romanoff. For this production Bessy chose to utilize Hertel's 1864 score in an orchestration by the Paris Opera's conductor Jean-Michel Damase, all the while retaining only a few of the late 19th century interpolations the score acquired throughout its performance history on the Imperial stage, most notably the additions provided by Minkus and Pugni. Bessy also retained some of the traditional choreography passed down from the time of Petipa and Ivanov's productions by way of Gorsky's Moscow production. This version had a long and successful run until 1993, when it was taken out of the repertory of the Paris Opera Ballet School. In 2002 the Paris Opera Ballet chose to revive Bessy's version for the company's own repertory, and to date the company still performs it regularly.
[edit] 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. Ashton's production was a resounding success that was hailed unanimously as the definitive version of La Fille Mal Gardée. Since its original inception Ashton's staging has become a much celebrated classic of the ballet repertory.
Originally Sir Frederick Ashton intended to use the music of Peter Ludwig Hertel for his new version, which had been used for nearly every revival of the ballet since the late 19th century. But after close inspection of the music Ashton decided it was too heavy-handed and banal for his new production. At the suggestion of the ballet historian and musicologist Ivor Guest, Ashton studied the 1828 score by Ferdinand Hérold, and found the lighter, simple music more suitable for his conception.
Ashton engaged Royal Opera House composer and conductor John Lanchbery to orchestrate and adapt Hérold's score. After becoming frustrated with the simplistic and under-developed nature of the original score, the two men decided that Hérold's original music would be better used as a foundation for an entirely new score, for which Lanchbery would compose a few new numbers. They went even further by incorperating elements of the original pastiche music from the premiere of 1789 into the score, as well as one number from Hertel's score.
Ashton was disappointed that Hérold's score contained no Grand Pas, and for a while considered using the well-known La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de Deux from Hertel's score. Then Ivor Guest found a violin reduction of the Pas de Deux that Fanny Elssler had arranged for her performance in 1837, tucked away in an old box of music at the Paris Opera. This number is now known as The Fanny Elssler Pas de Deux.
Ashton coreographed some of his most masterful dances 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 eight women with eight ribbons. Ashton also included Petipa's original mimed sequence known as When I'm Married, a passage that was performed by all of the great Ballerinas of old when they danced the role of Lise. He was taught this passage by Tamara Karsavina, former Ballerina of the Imperial Ballet and the original Ballet Russe. She had in turn learned it from her teacher Pavel Gerdt, once the Imperial Ballet's leading male dancer who partnered all of the great Ballerinas of the late 19th century and early 20th century in the role of Lise, including Virginia Zucchi.
To inspire Lanchbery to write music for a Clog Dance, Ashton took him to a performance of Lancashire clog dancers. The dance is performed in the ballet by Lise's mother the Widow Simone. Lanchbery decided to use the theme (or leitmotiv) for Simone from Hertel's score, the only music by Hertel that Lanchbery's score uses. Ashton fashioned a hilarious number from this music for Simone and four Ballerinas, at the beginning of which Lise tempts her mother with a pair of clogs, which Simone cannot resist. She 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 (on their toes)!
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).
[edit] 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, an expert in late 18th century and early 19th century dance theatre, and the Ballet du Rhin's artistic director, Jean Paul Gravier. They painstakingly researched 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 from folk dancing, as in the original. 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").
[edit] Historical photographs
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
[edit] Characters
- Lise — (the badly guarded daughter)
- Colas — (Lise's beloved)
- Widow Simone — (Lise's mother, traditionally danced by a man)
- Alain — (Lise's rich dimwitted suitor)
- Thomas — (Alain's father)
- Notary
- Farm workers — friends of Lisa and Colas
- Rooster and 3 hens
[edit] Synopsis
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.
At harvest time 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. There is a thunderstorm and everyone rushes for shelter. Alain is carried away on the wind by his open 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. At the sound of the Widow Simone's returning to the house, Lise and Colas look around desperately for a place where he can hide. Not finding anywhere suitable in the living room, Lise takes Colas to her room, and she 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 (friends of both Lise and Colas) 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 leave the house in dudgeon. 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, until Alain returns for his umbrella which he had accidentally left behind. So Alain is also happy with the love of his life - his umbrella.
[edit] The score for La Fille Mal Gardée as adapted by John Lanchbery
NOTE - For Sir Frederick Ashton's 1960 revival John Lanchbery utilized Hérold's 1828 music as well as passages from the original Bordeaux score of 1789 as "raw material". The listing below details all of the dances and scenes of Lanchbery's 1960 score. Except where noted, all of the themes are by Hérold in Lanchbery's adaptation.
Act 1
- No.1 Introduction (taken by Hérold from the Overture of Jean Paul Egide Martini's opera The Lord's Right)
- No.2 Dance of the Cock and Hens
- No.3 Lise and the Ribbon {Pas de Ruban} (taken by Hérold from the Introduction, Pianissimo from Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville)
- No.4 Colas
- No.4a Colas' Solo
- No.5 Colas and Simone
- No.6 Villagers
- No.7 Simone and Lise
- No.8 Lise and Colas {Pas de Ruban} (consisting of themes from Jean Paul Egide Martini's opera The Lord's Right)
- No.9 Village Girls
- No.10 Thomas and Alain (this number includes the comic solo for Alain, which was composed by Lanchbery)
- No.11 Off to the Harvest (composed by Lanchbery, and consisting of re-stated themes)
- No.12 Colas (re-statement of No.4)
- No.13 Picnic (taken from the original 1789 score - the Pas de M. Albert. The comic Pas de Trois for Lise, Colas, and Alain was composed by Lanchbery)
- No.14 Flute Dance (this number was originally the Pas des Moissonneurs from the 1828 score, adapted by Lanchbery)
- No.15 Quarrel (composed by Lanchbery, based on No.14)
- No.16 The Fanny Elssler Pas de deux (themes taken from Gaetano Donizetti's opera The Elixir of Love, and adapted for the Ballerina Fanny Elssler's 1837 appearance in La Fille Mal Gardée at the Académie Royale de Musique {or Paris Opéra} by the theatre's librarian and copyist Aimé-Ambroise-Simon Leborne. Orchestrated by Lanchbery)
- No.17 Simone (introduction composed by Lanchbery for the following number)
- No.17a Clog Dance (the only music taken by Lanchbery from Peter-Ludwig Hertel's 1864 score. This theme was created by Hertel as a leitmotiv for the Widow Simone in that score)
- No.18 Maypole Dance (taken from the 1789 score - the Pas de M. Albert)
- No.19 Storm and Finale (though rescored by Lanchbery, this is the almost totally un-altered storm music from Gioacchino Rossini's opera La Cenerentola)
Act 2
- No.20 Overture
- No.21 Lise and Simone
- No.22 Spinning (taken from the original 1789 score, including re-stated themes, and further adapted by Lanchbery)
- No.23 Tambourine Dance {Aria con variazioni} (taken from the original 1789 score, and further adapted by Lanchbery)
- No.24 Harvesters
- No.25 When I'm Married (taken from the aria Bell'alme Generose from Gioacchino Rossini's opera Elizabeth, Queen of England. This is the only number from the Hérold's 1828 score that Lanchbery did not re-orchestrate)
- No.26 Simone's Return
- No.27 Thomas, Alain and the Notaries
- No.28 Consternation and Forgiveness
- No.29 Pas de deux (a re-scored/adapted version of No.25)
- No.30 Finale (composed by Lanchbery)
[edit] Recordings of the music
To date, there have only been recordings of John Lanchbery's 1960 adaptation of the Ferdinand Hérold score and excerpts from Peter-Ludwig Hertel's 1864 score. Not all of these recordings are currently in print.
- Pas de Deux - The Ballet Experience: (released in 2002; CD Capriccio 67 012) Boris Spassov conducting the Sofia National Opera Orchestra. This recording includes the celebrated La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de Deux to the music of Hertel. The music included for the female variation is taken from Petipa's Harlequin's Millions (AKA Harlequinade) to the music of Riccardo Drigo - it is not, however, the traditional variation familiar to most dancers, which is also from Petipa's Harlequin's Millions. The music for the central Adagio is Hertel's traditional music, but the variation for Colas and the Coda are taken from another part of the full-length ballet.
- Original Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra - Ballet Gala (released 1989; taken from the 10 CD boxed-set Original Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra; CD Pilz) Georgi G. Zhemchushin conducting the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. This recording contains Hertel's La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de Deux in its traditional form familiar to most dancers, which comes to us not only choreographicaly but musically by way of the Alexander Gorsky's revival for the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. As with the above recording, the variation included for Lise is also taken from the Petipa/Drigo Harlequin's Millions, being another Variation of Columbine, and is the one familiar to most dancers.
- La Fille Mal Gardée - Excerpts (originally released onto LP in 1962; re-released in 1993 onto CD; CD Decca 430 196-2) John Lanchbery conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This contains excerpts from John Lanchbery's 1960 adaptation of Ferdinand Hérold's 1828 score.
- La Fille Mal Gardée - Highlights from the ballet (originally released on LP in 1983; re-released in 1988 onto CD. CD EMI Digital CDC) Barry Wordsworth conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. This contains excerpts from John Lanchbery's 1960 adaptation of Ferdinand Hérold's 1828 score.
- Hérold - La Fille Mal Gardée / Lecocq - Mam'zelle Angot (originally released onto LP in 1985; re-released onto CD in 1991; 2 CD Decca 430 849-2) John Lanchbery conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This is the only recording that contains the complete music for La File Mal Gardée in John Lanchbery's 1960 adaptation of Ferdinand Hérold's 1828 score. It also contains conductor Richard Bonynge's recording of Gordon Jacob's arrangement of Charles Lecocq's Mam'zelle Angot, played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
[edit] Sources
- Guest, Ivor Forbes. La Fille Mal Gardée: History of the Ballet.
- Guest, Ivor Forbes and Lanchbery, John. The Score of La Fille Mal Gardée. Published in Theatre Research, Vol. III, No. 3, 1961.
- Guest, Ivor Forbes. CD Liner Notes. Ferdinand Hérold. La Fille Mal Gardée - Excerpts. John Lanchbery Cond. Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. CD Decca 430 196-2
- Guest, Ivor Forbes. CD Liner Notes. Ferdinand Hérold/Charles Lecocq. La Fille Mal Gardée / Mam'zelle Angot . John Lanchbery cond. Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Richard Bonynge cond. National Philharmonic Orchestra. 2CD Decca 430 849-2.
- Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet / Mariinsky Theatre. Theatre Program for La Fille Mal Gardée. January 1994.
- Royal Ballet / Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Theatre Program for La Fille Mal Gardée. February, 1978 and January 1998.
- Wiley, Roland John. The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov.
[edit] External links
- La Fille Mal Gardée - about the ballet
- La Fille Mal Gardée - Australia Dancing
- La Fille Mal Gardée - Pennsylvania Ballet Academy of Music
