The Royal Ballet: La Fille mal gardée, September 2016

[alison]

Difficult to see how Hayward and Sambé could have delivered any better than they did tonight, really.  And indeed they were cheered to the rafters (or at least to the eau-de-nil ceiling )

[Mary]

Agree- it was wonderful, I danced down Floral Street and down and up the escalator.

Hayward was a perfect Lise, so musical- such lovely arms-   and she and Sambe were so fresh and convincing as young lovers it brought a tear to the eye: the music was so perfectly conducted by B Wordsworth;  the humour was there, bubbling underneath all evening but not overdone, the tone was just right. I was most impressed by the evidently v talented young David Yudes as Alain.

Brava, bravo!

[Sim]

A truly sublime evening. Once I can wipe this silly smile off my face I will get down to the serious business of going to sleep! More thoughts tomorrow. Sigh. And sigh again. When people ask me why I love ballet, tonight is one of the best answers I could give.

[Nina G.]

A most wonderful evening indeed, oh how I love La Fille mal gardee! Such a cheerful and colourful ballet; it has it all, from love to drama. The whole company looked great, and Sambe and Hayward made a lovely couple. As they are young dancers the coupling was as effective and emotional as the Naghdi/Ball coupling we witnessed in R&J. I find myself more and more booking tickets to see the younger talent in the company and I can't wait to see Naghdi and Hayward in their upcoming Sugar Plum and Aurora debut.

[Ellie]

Thank you for all your thoughts on last nights performance. I had a feeling it would be a special one

[Maria67]

I don't usually post my thoughts on performances I see, preferring to read all others. However, after last night I feel compelled to say just how beautiful the performance was.

 

I've only seen one other performance this run sadly. That cast was Choe and Zuchetti. But after last night I feel all other casts I've seen in recent years have been blown out of the water, and almost pale in comparison. It was truly something special.

 

Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambe are both very cute. In particular, Hayward reminded me almost of Cojocaru in a few places. They must have similar physiques. Hayward is a beautiful Ashton dancer and last night it showed.

 

Sambe hasn't been a dancer I've noticed much before, but after last night I feel he outshines all the principals in this role. He has a very natural ballon and charm. They worked very well together. I, like many others, left the theatre with a big smile on my face.

 

I won't add more and I'm sure others can sum up last night much better than myself. But it was truly something special.

[EM12]

Last night's performance was wonderful.  Francesca Hayward is very graceful and has a beautiful expressive back.  Marcelino Sambe I thought shows future principal potential.  He seems to hover in the air when he jumps before landing.  I particuarly like how it's not all about high legs with Francesca Hayward (i hate very high legs in ballet...), she doesn't show off high extensions at every opportunity like some dancers seem to do and i find this very refreshing.  I certainly hope that we can look forward to a DVD of this cast in the future.

[Sim]

I believe in synchronicity. Just as one of the best Lises of the past generation is about to dance her farewell performances of the ballet, along comes the next definitive interpreter of the role. The transition from Roberta Marquez to Francesca Hayward as THE Lise will be a very easy one for me, if last night's performance was anything to go by. Rarely have I seen two debuts as assured, as fun and as moving as those I saw last night.

 

Hayward and Marcelino Sambe complement each other perfectly: both so young, so sweet, so full of character and natural ebullience, radiating all around the ROH like a spreading ray of sunshine. As a friend of mine said, these roles could have been made on them. Technically, they were both very impressive, Hayward fast becoming an excellent Ashton dancer (as evidenced also by her lovely performances in Rhapsody last season). Her precise and pretty footwork, her small movements of the head which said so much, her epaulement, her lovely, pliant bends....I can't wait to see her dance more Ashton. My daughter suggested this pair as Titania and Oberon, and she is so right! I have long admired Sambe's dancing; he takes even the smallest of roles to a new level. Here, in his first star turn, he lived up to his potential and more. It is one thing being able to dance fireworks on your own; it is quite another to be a partner, both physically and dramatically. He was confident, strong and assured, executing all the lifts perfectly, including one of the best (and longest!) bum lifts I have ever seen. Not only was he technically strong, he was also tender, and with every look, every touch, we KNEW how much he loved his Lise. He couldn't have had a better partner for his first lead role than Francesca. They look great as a pair, their dancing is on a par each with the other, and, most importantly, there is oh so much chemistry there. They were utterly convincing as a young couple in love, and having a great time being so.

 

Tom Whitehead had to replace Philip Mosley as the Widow with short notice, but you would never know that he hadn't been rehearsing with this cast all along. I wrote after the first night of the season that I hadn't been so keen on his Widow, but that has now changed irrevocably after last night. He has really settled into the role now, and I must say it was hard to take my binoculars off him. He interacted with Hayward's naughty Lise just perfectly, the right balance between exasperation, secret admiration and love for this single-minded young girl. I loved the way he stayed in character during the curtain calls. Kudos also for a wonderfully musical clog dance, in perfect time to Barry Wordsworth's lush-sounding orchestra.

 

David Yudes made an effective debut as Alain; he is very young and I really admire Kevin O'Hare for constantly giving the young dancers a chance to shine on their own. David is a cracking dancer, and he seems to understand the depths of Alain's character, more so than some of the more experienced dancers I have seen. I don't compare anyone with Paul Kay in this role; there is him, then there are all the others, but David, I believe, could grow into one of the fine Alains.

 

One of the things I really loved last night was that there were a few minor mishaps: a couple of quick falls, a hay bale being knocked over in the house in Act 2, Naughty Peregrine once again leaving his mark at exactly the same time and the same spot as the previous three times this run (what on earth is going on there?!)....but it is a real tribute to the professionalism of the dancers how it all was dealt with, dancers subtly avoiding the intrusive hay bale, those who fell getting up and continuing as if nothing had happened, the lead dancers continuing undistracted at the front of the stage whilst the audience was giggling at the poor poop shoveller.

 

This was One Of Those Nights at the ROH, and I am so delighted to have been there. Many congratulations to Hayward/Sambe/Whitehead/Yudes for their fantastic performances; although this is such a happy ballet I somehow felt like crying! The Royal has a really wonderful crop of young dancers coming up through the ranks, and the future is looking very bright. My one negative comment is that this cast was only given one public performance....this seems to be a pattern; give the newbies one performance. It is frustrating because those who can't make that one performance will then have to wait years to see the couple again. On the positive side, at least O'Hare is giving them all a chance, and long may that continue.

[Bruce Wall]

What a wonderful review, Sim.  A stunning summation.  If I could have given TWO likes I would have loved to.  Much, much thanks for ALL.  

[Colman]

 

 

(what on earth is going on there?!)

Horses like routine. 

[Sim]

Gosh, thank you, Bruce!

[MAB]

I have to admit I love it when two young dancers are given major debuts together, too often the debutante is entrusted to an older, more experienced dancer and the freshness is diluted.

 

There is little I can add to Sim's excellent review, I echo everything she said, and her daughter is spot on about The Dream.  For a long time now I've waited for a British dancer trained in the English Ashtonian tradition to emerge with the potential to become a major star and I have no reservations in saying I believe Francesca Hayward is that dancer.  I found her dancing so lovely that tears sprang into my eyes, I was that happy.  The fact that this was a (almost) first attempt is astonishing, now I know how unfazed she appears in a full length work, I await her Aurora with impatience.

 

Sambe has consistently caught my eye but I was beginning to fear he might be overlooked, he made such a mighty impression on the audience with the amphi going quite mad for him that surely this highly impressive leading role must be the first of many.  Whitehead and Yudes (another debut I think) were more enjoyable than the more recent casts in their roles.  The comedy is there, how can it not be, it is how it was choreographed, but for me too many have broadened the comedy to make these roles coarse.  Whitehead seems aware he is comedy dame, not drag artist and I thank him for that.

 

A magical evening, this company is now truly on a roll.

[capybara]

 Naughty Peregrine once again leaving his mark at exactly the same time and the same spot as the previous three times this run (what on earth is going on there?!)....

 

 

Firstly, Sim (and MAB) thank you for your lovely reviews which manage to capture the spirit of yesterday evening beautifully.

 

Maybe the pony (who has long perfected his hoofing for a sugar lump) has now learned that another 'performance' is required of him? After all, noone has been able to tell him not to!

[aileen]

Yes, a very assured public debut for Hayward and Sambe. They were charming individually and together. Hayward in particular is a star in the making. She really connects with the audience without leaving her character. She's an enormously versatile dancer as well and showed that she has a talent for comedy last night. I'm sorry but I thought that Widow Simone and Alain have morphed into pantomime characters and I still have a problem with the 'village idiot' character of Alain generally. I don't know what's up with Peregrine. He did do a few pawing movements and at least he didn't attempt to destroy the scenery.

[RuthE]

I'd like to add my voice to the many complimentary posts about last night's joint public debut for Hayward and Sambe - an absolutely lovely performance, and a joy to watch.

 

To respond to an earlier post:

 

It would actually be useful to have the odd additional Sunday matinee in fact.

ENB do some Sunday's and very useful they are too

There maybe some logistical reason why the ROH cannot open on a Sunday of course but certainly more useful than weekday matinees are for most.

 

The ROH frequently does open on a Sunday - there are often family events in the Floral Hall, and 3pm opera matinees.  However, it is my (possibly incorrect) understanding that this is simply the RB's day off.  They train six days a week as it is...

[alison]

Maria67, welcome to the forum, and thank you for "breaking your duck" and posting.  We hope to hear more from you.

 

Maybe the pony (who has long perfected his hoofing for a sugar lump) has now learned that another 'performance' is required of him?

 

This is the thought that's been starting to niggle at me, too.  After all, it seems to me that the "pawing" thing (*can* a horse "paw" the ground?!) was an acquired behaviour when he first started doing it.  I hope not, for the sake of the poor dancers who have to clear up the mess (who have done sterling work this season so far, and probably deserve some sort of medal.  Last night's was particularly efficient.)  I think Peregrine only blotted his copybook once in the previous run?

 

Yes, a very assured public debut for Hayward and Sambe. They were charming individually and together. Hayward in particular is a star in the making. She really connects with the audience without leaving her character. She's an enormously versatile dancer as well and showed that she has a talent for comedy last night.

 

And it's not always a given that dramatically intelligent dancers will turn out to be good comedians as well.  My only concern, pre-performance, had been Sambé's relative lack of experience in partnering, because Colas is a tough role for that, but he brought it off with aplomb.  When I'd read Mark Monahan's review of their previous performance in the Daily Telegraph, I'd wondered if he was overstating the case a bit, but clearly he wasn't.

[LinMM]

I'm really not going to say much as it has all been said perfectly already by many posters so thanks for those reviews!

But I was there last night and couldn't have enjoyed Fille more!!

 

The two leads Hayward and Sambe were just perfect together both having such ease of style nothing forced at all....wonderful to see!!

I thought this was dancing at its best ....it drew you in to a degree you became almost unaware of the technique just in the joy of the dancers dancing and you were in it with them!!

 

Somebody said this ballet could have been almost choreographed on them and I agree!!

 

The support roles were both very good too .....not too overdone. I think Yudes made an excellent attempt at Alain....I'm always particularly sensitive about who plays this role as have seen Alexander Grant several times and so far he has moved me most but I thought Yudes is in the right direction. I always love the bit where he comes back for his beloved umbrella and Yudes didn't disappoint in his "pathetic" joy at finding it!!

Lovely lovely evening.

[David]

Great review Sim - I was there - in fact I've just got back -  and you've summed it up perfectly for me. It was a great evening!

[FLOSS]

It is inevitable that we all have our favourite dancers but if you stick to them or only go to performances by big name dancers you may come away disappointed and you will certainly miss some very fine ballet performances. Now I know that Francesca Hayward is hardly an unknown quantity but Sambe while he has caught the eye in other roles has until now played either minor  characters or characters who don't survive until the end of the ballet. Colas is not a role for the fainthearted or the technically challenged but it is not merely an opportunity to display technique either. The roles of LIse and Colas may have been created for the company's two greatest technicians of the time but those roles are as much a test of characterisation as of technical and partnering skills. I don't mean that you have to "act " the roles as you do in MacMillan but the dancer has to strike the right balance between character and bravura technical display and even in the Fanny Elssler pas de deux the audience should always be aware that while it may be a display piece the pas de deux is concerned as much with the characters' feelings for each other as it is about their technical skills.

 

I have seen three casts in this run of performances, Morera and Muntagirov gave the audience a wonderfully warm account of their characters through their dancing. Morera played Lise as the daughter of a devious peasant and it is clear that she will one day become like her mother. She may not be as ebullient as she was with Cervera but her account of the role is a very satisfying one as she misses nothing in the choreography and plays everything for character rather than display. Muntagirov with the sheer elegance of his dancing, is, like David Ashmole before him, not a peasant but a charming gentleman farmer whose only fault in Simone's eyes is his lack of acres.Both dancers gave an account of the ballet which gave the impression that the movement was normal, natural and easy. Anyone who attended the last Ballet Association meeting will know just how difficult the role of Colas is for the dancer.

 

McRae and Osipova gave the audience ballet stars rather than a Lise and Colas of character and charm. So we were given Osipova's Lise and McRae's Colas. McRae's Colas was danced with consummate technical skill but in the Fanny Elssler pas de deux everything was too obviously polished for bravura effect rather than for character.For me at least It was too much "Look at me jumping" rather than "See how much I love LIse" and there was not a great deal of "the charm of youth". Osipova is an impressive dancer and in the right role a great one but she dances Lise with a very heavy foreign accent.and there are occasions on which it is clear that she still has to master the choreographic style.Her LIse is more Swanhilda than Ashton's Lise and there were times on Wednesday during the harvest scene when I thought that she was slightly out with some of her timings. Perhaps it is useful to see a dancer like Osipova performing in a way which shows that the choreography is not half as easy as it usually appears in performance.

 

I know that last night was not the first time that Hayward and Sambe had danced their roles but both were incredibly impressive and convincingly in character throughout the ballet. We already knew that Hayward can dance Ashton's choreography idiomatically from her performances in Rhapsody and as Vera in Month and here she showed complete mastery of the technical challenges inherent in the choreography and of Lise's character as revealed by the choreographer. Her Lise has clean bright footwork,a clean unforced jump and beautiful epaulement, She reminded me of one of my favourite Lise's Ann Jenner. As someone said to me last night Ashton would have loved her. I think he would too and i think that he would have loved Sambe too. He was full of youthful charm,technique, elevation and character. But here we had a dancer whose Fanny Elssler pas de deux had little or nothing to do with his technical prowess and everything to do with his feelings for Lise. For me seeing the Osipova, McRae performance and the Hayward, Sambe performance back to back was the difference between seeing a ballet danced as a star vehicle and a ballet danced for its own qualities as a work of art. 

 

Whitehead has appeared as Simone at each performances that I have attended. At the moment he seems to be the only dancer appearing as Simone who can actually dance the clog dance really well. I wish that he had not chosen to fall on his bottom during his call with the other clog dancers. As he dances his solo so well he should really be allowed to follow Brian Shaw's precedent of sweeping off the stage like the greatest of Russian ballerinas. That piece of business was as funny as the dance itself. Not scripted but permitted by Ashton. As far as his characterisation is concerned it has softened visibly since opening night. He throws the vegetables at Colas as if he wants to hit him but his hesitation over breaking the flower pot is not clear enough. It is fascinating to see Simone develop and grow at each performance. Whitehead seems to be a dancer, rare in recent years, who does not take his clue for the role from the mindless association of the character with the tradition of the pantomime dame. He is not as crude or as careless in performance as many Simones we have seen of late nor is he as ingratiatingly camp as some. 

 

Paul Kay is perhaps the only dancer in the company at present who seems to have any idea of the significance of character roles Ashton  created for Alexander Grant. It is fashionable in some quarters to talk about the roles of Alain and the Jester as if they were a stepping stone to greater things. Kay treats both roles seriously and creates characters rather than caricatures. The main problem is that both Hay and Yudes play Alain as completely gormless whereas Grant was always insistent that Alain's problem was merely that he was young and immature.I am aware that in both cases this is work in progress although I wonder just how long Hay will be dancing the role as his developmental path seems to lie elsewhere. I think that the problem in large part with all the current crop of Alains is that they all know that they are "being funny" when they should play everything as if they have no knowledge of the possibility of humour in their actions..

 

It seems to me that what is wrong with the portrayal of Alain has more to do with the general coarsening of the ballet over the years as a result of the view taken of various roles by the stagers and coaches than it has to do individual performers Some of the broader elements of the role such as Alain wiggling his bottom in time to the triangle seem to have been given greater and greater prominence in the last twenty years while the finer elements such as making a big show of having got the pipe he has been trying to play full of spit have gradually disappeared.  Alain's first act solo where his father insists on him dancing for Simone and her daughter as danced by Alexander Grant used to suggest a gangling youth who had received a few dancing lessons which had become hopelessly tangled in his mind. His performance was a wonderful mixture of extreme finesse and incompetence as if he was someone who was trying desperately hard to get it right. His harvest scene pas de trois with Lise was a continuation of the same theme with Alain shooting his arm up in the air in vague memory of the need to mirror his partner's movement. It was an in joke about line.No one gets the timing of that bit of business right because no one bothers to recreate Alain's thought process  for the audience. It used to be made manifest in performance and .it was the constipated progress of that recollection from memory to last minute action which always mirrored Lise's leg raised in arabesque that was so priceless.

 

In the last act there is a loss of finesse too.Perhaps someone can tell me when Alain was last seen making his way to the wrong bedroom door rather than clutching his crotch before opening the correct door only to discover Colas and Lise locked in embrace?

 

.

Edited October 7, 2016 by FLOSS

[Beryl H]

I would aso like to add my congratulations to the dancers last night for producing one of those very special occasions, agree with the ecstatic comments, especially that Fille is probably the perfect ballet for Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambe, like Sim I felt very emotional too, not for the characters as such but for the dancers' happiness in bringing the performance off so brilliantly, and like Maria67 Francesca Hayward reminded me of Alina Cojocaru, which is an exciting thought.

[alison]

Unfortunately, when I gave in to the temptations of special offers and booked for Osipova/McRae, I booked for next week instead of this week, and think in retrospect I should probably have done the opposite - doubly so since I realise I've now locked myself out of the first night for BRB at Sadler's Wells.  I agree absolutely, FLOSS, about the emotional commitment of Hayward's and Sambé's characters to each other.  They were a delight *together*.

 

One thing which *has* bugged me in recent times about some of the Alains is the disconnect between the first-act solo and the second-act solo.  If he is a clumsy dancer in the first, how does he then manage to execute such fine batterie in the second?  Just because he's in his finery doesn't automatically improve his dancing twenty-fold.  Thanks for your comments about his characterisation in the cornfield, too - that raised arm can sometimes come over uncomfortably close to a Nazi salute.

 

I thought Tom Whitehead had tremendous promise as Simone when I saw him being coached in the role in the Linbury a few seasons back, and was very disappointed when he didn't get to perform then.  And yes, I agree that his performance is coming on in leaps and bounds - but also agree that no Simone in recent times has quite managed to carry off the flowerpot part.  Whether you think it's because she's worried that she might actually do some serious damage to Colas if she throws it, or whether it's just that it's a relatively expensive vase and she doesn't want to break it, it's not quite come off recently, although I think last night was clearer than any other performance I've seen in this run.

 

And finally, rewinding to a performance from a few days ago, I feel I must also say a few words in praise of Sambé's ultra-officious Notary's Clerk, which I thought was beautifully characterised.  On that basis, I could see him making a very good White Rabbit ...

[jmhopton]

I can only echo all the praise and enthusiasm heaped on Francesca and Marcelino after last night's performance. It was a joy to watch, and a wonderful thought that Francesca is only at the start of her principal career and surely Marcelino won't be far behind her if last night's performance is anything to go by. Just a pity it wasn't being filmed as it was a masterclass in how to dance Ashton whilst also beautifully interpreting the roles. I stayed behind at the stage door with a few others to congratulate them personally and we were told that there might be quite a wait as there was a party on but no they soon appeared and  everyone was really appreciative she took the time and trouble to come out and pose for photographs and sign autographs before returning to her party. The sign of a lovely lady as well as a great dancer.

[FLOSS]

As played by Alexander Grant Alain was not as clumsy in act 1 as he is now. His portrayal was an extraordinary mixture of finesse and incompetence and far less of a comedy turn than we now see. Nothing was signaled as a joke and you did not see obvious preparation for anything.What he danced he danced very cleanly the joke when he executed his series of tours was simply that he ended up facing the wrong way. He managed to give the impression that he was a gangling youth whose legs were not completely under his control but he did not fall about and of course he took the whole thing very seriously. When he fell over it was as if he had made a mistake because his legs would not do what he wanted them to do and the fall was not as obviously prepared as it is now. When he did fall over he got up as if he was surprised and embarrassed by the whole thing and then he ran his hands over his britches because they were sweaty. My recollection is that nothing was played as broadly as it is now but then Alexander Grant was an extraordinary character dancer and did not need to signal the jokes. Perhaps the problem is that stagers believe that we need to be told that this is FUNNY or we won't get it.

Edited October 7, 2016 by FLOSS

[Jam Dancer]

I'm not great at reviews so I'm happy to see a few of them that echo my feelings about last night's performance with Hayward and Sambe. I absolutely  loved it and was amazed how assured both leads were.  I've been a fan of Sambe's for a while and  I was pleased to see him do so well in a lead role.  Francesca was deliciously delightful and it is good to see her continued development. I was a bit surprised by my emotional reaction to their performance  and happy at the audience's reaction.

 

I was hoping to get to see another pair of dancers in the role (saw Morera and Muntagirov last week) and it looks like I wont't achieve that but I can't complain at all! I've also enjoyed Whitehead's performances as Simone.

 

As we were leaving the Opera House, I was remarking to my companion that Sambe is a bit shorter than some of the up and coming men in the company and wondered aloud whether that would pose a challenge for him in getting to the principal ranks (aware that there are many others) and no sooner had I said this, you wouldn't believe who we passed headed in the opposite direction - Wayne Sleep!

[Ian Macmillan]

As the ROH "What's On" pages only look forwards, can someone tell me - were there two Hayward/Sambé performances yesterday, a Schools Matinee and another in the evening?

[Sim]

No....the schools matinee they danced was about a week ago;  that is the one that Mark Monahan reviewed, most unusually.  And, most unusually, I agree with every word he said!!  

[Ian Macmillan]

Sim:  Thank you, all now clear - and naughty Telegraph running that review again with today's date.  It looked all wrong and so won't now be in tomorrow's Links.

[Nina G.]

No....the schools matinee they danced was about a week ago;  that is the one that Mark Monahan reviewed, most unusually.  And, most unusually, I agree with every word he said!!  

 

 

I usually do not agree with Mark Monahan either ( he is a superficial reviewer imo ) but - although a bit over the top - I agree it was a very lovely performance. 

[imogensevans]

I'm not great at reviews so I'm happy to see a few of them that echo my feelings about last night's performance with Hayward and Sambe. I absolutely loved it and was amazed how assured both leads were. I've been a fan of Sambe's for a while and I was pleased to see him do so well in a lead role. Francesca was deliciously delightful and it is good to see her continued development. I was a bit surprised by my emotional reaction to their performance and happy at the audience's reaction.

 

I was hoping to get to see another pair of dancers in the role (saw Morera and Muntagirov last week) and it looks like I wont't achieve that but I can't complain at all! I've also enjoyed Whitehead's performances as Simone.

 

As we were leaving the Opera House, I was remarking to my companion that Sambe is a bit shorter than some of the up and coming men in the company and wondered aloud whether that would pose a challenge for him in getting to the principal ranks (aware that there are many others) and no sooner had I said this, you wouldn't believe who we passed headed in the opposite direction - Wayne Sleep!

[imogensevans]

Sorry Jam Dancer-didn't mean to quote your entire post! Pressed the wrong button! I wish I'd seen Francesca and Marcelino dance in Fille together. With regard to him being too short to be a principal, what about Campbell and McRae? They're certainly not tall.

[Melody]

If Peregrine has taken to relieving himself on stage on a regular basis, why isn't he fitted with one of those bags that catch poop?

[simonbfisher]

Melody, perhaps it could be fashioned into a sort of pupu ......

Edited October 8, 2016 by simonbfisher

[Arky]

Good one, simonbfisher! I like that idea tootoo.

 

 

 

Marcelino and Francesca gave us a memorable evening, Superb!

Edited October 8, 2016 by Arky