La Fille mal gardée at the Royal Opera House sounds very French and a bit naughty. But Frederick Ashton’s ballet could not be more English and pure. Set in bucolic England, it was, at its premiere in 1960, a pleasant antidote to all the kitchen-sink dramas on stage and film.
The ballet, pretty and charming, sweet and innocent, lyrical and sentimental, whimsical and farcical, was an immediate success with critics, the public and especially little girls who love Shetland ponies. Marie Rambert hailed the ballet as the first great English classic.
