A comic pastoral ballet to the music of Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold. "Futile Precaution" is the first comic ballet in history, created by Jean Dauberval on the eve of the French Revolution, a unique case where the characters of the performance were contemporaries of the audience present at the premiere. Since then, the choreography and music of the ballet have changed multiple times - for the production at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, the classical version by British choreographer Frederick Ashton was chosen, adapted by the theatre's chief ballet master Mikhail Messerer and ballet specialist Michael O'Hare. The plot of "Futile Precaution" is simple and full of humor. The charming Liza is being forced by her strict mother to marry the son of a wealthy neighbor, but the girl resists with all her might - she already has a beloved, a poor peasant named Colin, with whom she manages to sneak away despite her mother's vigilance. The bright and dynamic performance is rich in entertaining details and fantasies, such as a hilarious dance in a chicken coop or the appearance of a live pony hitched to a cart on stage. For more performances in St. Petersburg, check out our website in the theatre section.