La fille mal gardée is a ballet enigma. It has an uncomplicated plot, and its music (in the version available to us today) has been long considered “secondary”. Yet it is the oldest ballet still in the repertoire of the world’s leading theatres. The key to its mystery is in a remarkable combination of sincerity, wit, melodic charm, and profound choreographic wisdom that speaks to the audience in the universal language of love, humor, and zest for life.
The ballet was born during an era when the genre was gradually shifting away from the conventions of aristocratic court art toward more lively plots accessible to a wider audience. It was premiered on July 1, 1789, in Bordeaux, just two weeks before the storming of the Bastille, which proved symbolic: the old world was collapsing, and a new art bringing ordinary people into spotlight was being born on stage.
The ballet was choreographed by Jean Dauberval, a student of the great reformer Noverre. Dauberval brought to fruition his teacher’s idea of pantomime ballet, where emotions are expressed not through conventional gestures, but through realistic play. He transferred the action from mythological palaces to a French farm, making peasants the central figures.
The music for the first production was written by the now-forgotten Pierre Gaveaux, who composed a medley of songs and arias popular with his contemporaries. In 1828, the renowned French choreographer Jean Aumer decided to revive Dauberval’s ballet and commissioned the composer Louis Hérold to create a completely new score. Hérold accomplished the task brilliantly, bringing forth a coherent, elegantly orchestrated score in the spirit of comic opera, instead of the former eclectic medley. Into his work, Hérold masterfully incorporated French folk motifs (for example, the popular ditty "There's No Confidence in the Gendarme"), galops, waltzes, and pastoral ensembles. The music goes beyond the mere accompaniment to the dance; it plays the leading role, setting up an atmosphere of a carefree village festival.
Despite its apparent lightness, Hérold’s score possesses the qualities of a symphonic development. It stands out among the typical ballet scores of the era due to its leitmotifs, thematic contrasts, and rich orchestration (woodwinds for pastoral scenes and brass for comic effects).
The ballet La fille mal gardée has gone beyond the genre boundaries, becoming a monument to European musical and theatrical culture, a link between the era of Dauberval and Petipa, and the modern theatre. And it is thanks to Louis Hérold’s sunny, graceful, and witty music that this pastoral trifle of the late 18th century has gained its eternal youth and continues to enchant audiences worldwide.
It is also worth mentioning that over the years, this ballet has attracted the most renowned and outstanding choreographers, such as Charles Didelot, Marius Petipa, Yury Grigorovich, and many others. On the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, Oleg Vinogradov’s version will be performed.
Oleg Maryash
