Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé are delightful in Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée ‘for 2025’

United Kingdom Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée: Dancers of The Royal Ballet, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Jonathan Lo (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Ross MacGibbon) from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 5.11.2025. (JPr)

I will – without apology – draw heavily on a review I wrote about La Fille mal gardée in 2018 because my reaction to watching it again – 45 years after seeing Sir Frederick Ashton’s ballet at the Royal Opera House (with several other performances in between) was virtually identical. Once again, I had wondered ‘Do I really need to see it again?’. Well, I needn’t have worried as it was the same marvellously fun-filled and exuberantly danced ballet I saw again in 2018 and all those years ago at Covent Garden for the very first time.

With each generation of dancers, I have often enjoyed watching one ballerina more than any other. Over the years it has been The Royal Ballet’s Lesley Collier, Miyako Yoshida and Marianela Núñez more often than not and all three have been outstanding Lises in La Fille. In this performance it was wonderful to watch Francesca Hayward prove she is equally as good as those exalted predecessors in the role. Hayward might have no longer been with The Royal Ballet had the movie version of Cats not been such a disaster; with her Victoria the White Cat being one of the better things in it.

The triumph of this entire performance of La Fille was that on none of the dancers’ faces did you see them thinking ‘How do I need to move my arms and legs next?’ Hayward moved as instinctively as any of them and was always in character as an enchanting Lise. Ashton’s challenging Bournonville- and Bolshoi-inflected choreography didn’t appear to challenge her, though I am sure it did. Delightfully winsome and revealing near-perfect comic timing, Hayward was the perfect rebellious teenager with a crush on a local farm boy. Hayward’s exquisite, gossamer light dancing was almost eclipsed by her skilful – and very charming – second-act mime as Lise imagines the children she might have. She made Lise’s mortification (photo above) when her sweetheart Colas revealed that he had ‘overheard’ her just as believable and it could not have been bettered in a straight play. I believe Ashton drew on the memories of Tamara Karsavina – a Lise in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg – for this scene, with it serving as a reminder how his version of the ballet is just one in a long line that dates back to before the French Revolution.

Ashton created his ballet masterpiece in 1960, imbuing La Fille with his typically ‘English’ signature and tasking Osbert Lancaster to provide the timeless pastoral setting. The story of La Fille is an endearingly simple one: Lise is the daughter of Widow Simone who tries to marry her off to Alain, the only son of a wealthy landowner, Thomas. Alain is ‘not the sharpest sickle in the barn’ and is painfully shy. However, Lise loves the young and handsome – though penniless – Colas. As is to be expected everything is resolved happily when having been discovered together in Lise’s bedroom – Ashton leaves what they have been doing, apart from seemingly changing their costumes, to our imagination! – they are allowed to marry, and the celebration of young love gets the happy ending we crave for them.

Ashton’s treatment was influenced by not only Karsavina but the countryside around his Suffolk home. There is so much to enjoy here for ballet lovers of all ages: for the very youngest there is always the ‘Aah’ factor of a larger-than-life strutting cockerel (brought to vivid life by Liam Boswell) with his four hens –  apparently influenced by Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen – and the small white pony, the debutant Oscar, pulling a cart. Ashton’s deceptively simple choreography incorporates much bending, rapid footwork, quick spins, Bournonville softness and natural grace, and Bolshoi-style grand gestures, such as Colas lifting Lise high above his head on the palm of his hand (the famous ‘bum lift’) at the end of their Act I pas de deux. The Royal Ballet’s corps de ballet were very assured and enthusiastic and always in character too. The tricky ribbon dances of Act I – we heard from Hayward and her Colas, Marcelino Sambé, that the ribbons have a mind of their own! – were overcome with consummate ease; including Lise and Colas’s ‘horse and cart’ and cat’s cradle, as well as the wheel of ribbons during the harvest festivities (when there was an impressive storm both visually and aurally).

Marcelino Sambé’s performance as Colas was as good as any I have seen from him. He brought to his portrayal lots of natural boyish charm and a perfect jack-the-lad confidence. He soared virtuosically – and effortlessly – across the stage, spun like a top and was the perfect foil to Hayward’s Lise. There was a genuine chemistry between these two fine artists which made their beautifully executed final pas de deux the ultimate summation of their excellent partnership.

Wayne Sleep will probably remain the best Alain I have seen but Joshua Junker, another new to his role, elicited considerable sympathy over his quest for a bride and never was entirely just a figure of fun. Like everyone watching I guess, I revelled in Alain’s joy when reunited with his beloved red umbrella and waddled off clutching it to his heart as the ballet ends.

James Hay also deserves credit for his part in this first-rate La Fille. He never made Widow Simone a grotesque by overplaying the comedy. However, there were just enough subtle hints of a panto dame for me to recall long-ago Christmas-time memories of Billy Dainty or Roy Hudd. Hay made his Act I clog dance as much his own as is possible after 65 years. There is a ‘but’: when Widow Simone chastises her daughter – including mimed spanking – it can be a little jarring to see this now in 2025 and someone should have the courage to remove these moments.

The smaller roles brought out the best in all concerned and I was delighted to see the entire company perform with a joy which radiated from the cinema screen. I must also praise Jonathan Lo and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House for such an engaging, sunny and lively account of Hérold’s romantic score (as arranged and added to by John Lanchbery) As I concluded in 2018, if you are looking for a calming escape from the disturbing world we now live in, you can find it in this production. Sadly, in seven years things are worse not better!

It was interesting when The Royal Ballet’s Director – and a former Colas – Kevin O’Hare said how he wanted a heritage ballet such as La Fille to be ‘for 2025’. This sense of renewal for each generation must end with me reflecting on how – notwithstanding a Bonfire Night children’s matinee earlier in the day – when the camera panned around the auditorium the overall impression was of an audience made up of those much too close to my own eighth decade.

Jim Pritchard

Featured Image: James Hay as Widow Simone © Andrej Uspenski

Creatives:
Choreography – Frederick Ashton
Music – Ferdinand Hérold
Arranged and Orchestrated by John Lanchbery
Scenario – Jean Dauberval
Designer – Osbert Lancaster
Lighting designer – John B. Read
Staging – Christopher Carr
Principal Coaching – Alexander Agadzhanov, Stuart Cassidy, Jean Christophe Lesage, Isabel McMeekan

Cast:
Widow Simone – James Hay
Lise – Francesca Hayward
Colas – Marcelino Sambé
Thomas – Christopher Saunders
Alain – Joshua Junker
Cockerel – Liam Boswell
Hens – Madison Bailey, Bomin Kim, Leticia Stock, Marianna Tsembenhoi
Lise’s Friends – Mica Bradbury, Annette Buvoli, Leticia Dias, Hannah Grennell, Chisato Katsura, Sae Maeda, Mariko M. Sasaki, Charlotte Tonkinson
Village Notary – Aiden O’Brien
Notary’s Clerk – Liam Boswell
Villagers, Harvesters, Grooms – Artists of The Royal Ballet