La Fille Mal Gardee - Royal Opera House



 Saturday saw a trip to the Royal Opera House for a Royal Ballet performance (number 386th overall apparently) of La Fille Mal Gardee.  The MiL had booked it, in part, in the hope of Steven McRae dancing the male lead, Colas.  She’s a fan.  Unfortunately that was not to be as he is injured.  If you are going to put your body through quite that level of work out for quite so many years I would expect that is inevitable from time to time.


Still, assuming the cast list is correct, to my untrained eye, Luca Acri did a great job in his place.  As, for that matter, did Liam Boswell as Alain and James Hay as Widow Simone.  Anna Rose O’Sullivan was superb in the role of Lise and frankly, the entire corps contributed splendidly to a very enjoyable evening.  I especially love the chickens……and the clog dance…..and the maypole.  Actually, possibly not in that order.  The MiL loves the chickens, I really like the clog dance and why/how they do the maypole is a mystery!  


I would just mention that I go to the ballet a couple of times a year tops and am absolutely clueless.  I just want to be entertained.  I do, however, love a Rom Com in any genre so this particular ballet works well for me in the way so many of them are a less obvious fit.  


The MiL is rather more of a connoisseur.   During the Covid she subscribed to pretty much every ballet performance and recorded rehearsal available on TV which topped up an existing interest to really talking a very good game.  She appears to be able to identify footwork errors.  The Royal Ballet corps and any other ballet company I go to watch on occasions can rest assured that the only ‘error’ I have ever noticed (not on this occasion) was when a ballerina dropped something, a flute I think, she mimed and the character principal on stage picked it up.  It was all done very smoothly.


The most dramatic incident that I have ever encountered at the Royal Opera House was a couple of decades ago when the principal ballerina twisted her ankle coming off stage after the first scene in Manon.  Jaimie Tapper was drafted in from, reportedly, painting her bathroom in Shepherd’s Bush to dance alongside Johan Kobborg.  This resulted in an early, lengthy interval during which time a plate of smoked salmon sandwiches and a bottle of champagne went down very well.  Jaimie Tapper was, on that occasion, a delight from the moment she appeared on stage much like Anna Rose O’Sullivan proved to be yesterday (without any champagne goggles whatsoever). 


As can be seen from the photo above the Royal Opera House  now have new curtains with King Charles’s cipher on them.  First time I have seen them.  Have yet to clock up a post box!


 

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