# La fille mal gardée



## pcnog11

Does anyone have an opinion on this ballet? Have you seen a live performance? If so, where did you see it?


----------



## Becca

There are many versions but the only really good one is the Frederick Ashton / Royal Ballet version with a score compiled by John Lanchbery...


----------



## Pugg

I like this one, ( never mind the 1962 recording....)

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/ica+classics/ICAD5088


----------



## Marsilius

There is a lengthy independent review of that superb 1962 performance - featuring the dancers who had premiered the Ashton version - here http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Jan13/Herold_La_fille_ICAD5088.htm


----------



## jegreenwood

Unfortunately, I have never seen it live. I would like to.

As for the music, I posted on this in another thread. An album of excerpts conducted by Lanchbery was included in the Decca Analogue box. Recently, I gave it a second listen - I suspect my first listen was as background music. This is simply one of the best sounding recordings in history. The vinyl version is included in The Absolute Sound's Super Disc list.


----------



## Pugg

jegreenwood said:


> Unfortunately, I have never seen it live. I would like to.
> 
> As for the music, I posted on this in another thread. An album of excerpts conducted by Lanchbery was included in the Decca Analogue box. Recently, I gave it a second listen - I suspect my first listen was as background music. This is simply one of the best sounding recordings in history. The vinyl version is included in The Absolute Sound's Super Disc list.


They had the best sound engineers. ( Decca that is) 
Nowadays they share them with DG.


----------



## Reichstag aus LICHT

pcnog11 said:


> Does anyone have an opinion on this ballet?


It holds a place in my affections. Although I couldn't play any instrument, the school orchestra once allowed me to play the wooden block in the "Clog Dance", which was possibly the highlight of my academic career.


----------



## Pugg

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> It holds a place in my affections. Although I couldn't play any instrument, the school orchestra once allowed me to play the wooden block in the "Clog Dance", which was possibly the highlight of my academic career.


At least you made it to some sort of stage, most here are only blabbing about it.


----------



## Marsilius

Becca said:


> There are many versions but the only really good one is the Frederick Ashton / Royal Ballet version with a score compiled by John Lanchbery...


You're probably correct that the Ashton version is the only "really good" one. Last week, however, I watched the Russian State Ballet of Siberia perform another version at the Hippodrome theatre in Bristol, UK. They danced to Peter Ludwig Hertel's 1864 score, using a mixture of choreography devised at various points over the past 228 years by Jean Dauberval, Alexander Gorsky and Mark Peretokin.

While the Hertel score is admittedly nowhere near as memorable as Lanchbery's revision of Herold's music, the enthusiasm and skilful artistry of the very youthful Siberian company delivered a charming and very enjoyable evening's entertainment to the enthusiastic and full audience.


----------



## CristianRey

The Petipa/Hertel version also survived via Nijinska's staging for Ballet Theater in the 1940's. It is now gone, but Alicia Alonso lifted it to her company in Havana in 1948. It is still performed today in its 1940's BT manner.


----------



## Roger Knox

Here's an archival quality copy of the final 8 min. of National Ballet of Canada's _La fille mal gardée_ with Karen Kain and Frank Agustyn, circa early 1970's.






I never saw the ballet live but I did see the whole of this TV production. In the 1970's ballet had a large following in Canada with such events as the arrival of young dancers like Kain, the involvement of Nureyev in a number of productions, and later the defection of Baryshnikov in Toronto. While dancing and choreogrogaphy have advanced greatly, back then funding for a full-sized orchestra and attractive costumes, sets, and props could be counted on.


----------



## Marsilius

Roger Knox said:


> In the 1970's ballet had a large following in Canada with such events as... the involvement of Nureyev in a number of productions... *ack then funding for a full-sized orchestra and attractive costumes, sets, and props could be counted on.*


*

Not necessarily, it seems. for when Nureyev mounted an extremely lavish production of The sleeping beauty for the National Ballet of Canada in 1972, the company's chairman was forced to mortgage his house so as to bankroll the production (see Julie Kavanagh Rudolf Nureyev: the life [London, 2008], p. 444.]*


----------

