| NEW
YORK POST, JUNE 3, 2002 DANCE REVIEW BY CLIVE BARNES
VIVID AND CHARMING
'LA FILLE'
AS refreshing as a
summer breeze Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardée positively floated into the
repertory of American Ballet Theater for the first time at over the past weekend.
Forget the almost
untranslatable French title (it means something like "The Badly Guarded
Daughter") and luxuriate in the bewitching charms of one of the greatest ballets of
the 20th century.
Although this
international masterpiece, premiered first in 1960, has been in the repertory of various
other companies, this is the first time it has been staged by ABT.
And what a wonderful
staging it is. It has been impeccably mounted by a team headed by Alexander Grant, a key
member of the 1960 cast. The original and witty Osbert Lancaster designs are still
present, as is John Lanchbery's brilliant patchwork adaptation of a score.
Ashton's version, uses
the 1828 story, bits of the traditional mime that had come down through Russian versions,
but completely rechoreographed it his own vivid style.
The ABT this season is
showing off four different casts in the leading roles and the two I caught were both
brilliant.
As Lise, the
high-spirited village gal who is determined to marry her own chosen lover come what may,
both Xiomara Reyes and Nina Ananiashvili were delicious.
Reyes was partnered as
Colas, the young fellow she loves, by Angel Corella, while Ananiashvili found her true
love in the powerful Carlos Acosta.
Both Herman Cornejo and
Carlos Lopez were superb as Lise's simple-minded suitor, Alain. He had been hand-picked by
her mother, Widow Simone (always played by a man), and here given delightfully by both
Victor Barbee and Guillaume Graffin.
But - and it's rare a
critic can say this - no praise could be too high for the whole company. ABT and its
director Kevin McKenzie seems to have found a new high.
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