P.I. Tchaikovsky ballet "Sleeping Beauty"

Ballet "Sleeping Beauty" - fabulous performance, a delightful extravaganza that captures the viewer as its bright and solemn visual component, coupled with musical theme authorship of the great Tchaikovsky , and deep philosophical overtones. The ballet in three acts is staged according to the plot of Charles Perrault's fairy tale, known to everyone since childhood, about a princess who fell asleep for a hundred years, who was awakened from her magical sleep only by the kiss of a handsome prince.

Creating the score for this production, Tchaikovsky fully revealed his legendary talent, elevating the music for the ballet from the rank of a “subordinate state” accompanied by dance to a complex and opening up new horizons work. Magnificent music, excellent dances and festive scenery for two and a half hours return the viewer to Magic world childhood.

Summary of Tchaikovsky's ballet "" and many interesting facts read about this work on our page.

Characters	Description
Princess Aurora	young beauty, daughter of the king and queen
King Florestan XIV	Aurora's father
Queen	King's consort and mother of Aurora
Carabosse	evil fairy
Desiree	beautiful Prince
Catalabutte	chief butler of the king of Florestan
Princes wooing Aurora	Sheri, Sharman, Fleur de Poix, Fortuné
six good fairies	Lilac (godmother of Aurora), Candide, Fleur-de-Farin, Bread Crumb, Canary, Violant

Summary of "Sleeping Beauty"

Behind the opened curtain, the viewer is awaited by a magnificent celebration arranged by King Florestan in his palace on the occasion of the christening of the newborn Princess Aurora. Among the guests there are six good fairies who have arrived to reward the little daughter of the king with magical gifts. However, the general fun is suddenly replaced by horror when the evil and powerful fairy Carabosse bursts into the ballroom, furious that they forgot to invite her to the royal celebration. She wants to take revenge and casts a terrible spell on little Aurora, according to which the princess, on the day of her majority, will fall asleep forever, pricking her finger with an ordinary weaving spindle. After the departure of Carabosse, the godmother of Aurora, the Lilac Fairy, tries to soften the gloomy spell, telling the saddened royal couple that there is hope for a favorable outcome of the case and their daughter will fall asleep not forever, but for 100 years, and the kiss of a handsome prince can wake her up.

On the day of Aurora's coming of age, King Florestan again arranges a magnificent celebration in the garden of his palace. The butler of Catalabute reads the decree of the ruler, stating that anyone who brings a spindle or other sharp objects into the castle will go to prison. Court weavers, who ended up in the palace with their working tools, barely manage to avoid severe punishment.

During the holiday, numerous noble and wealthy suitors, who are handsome, come from royal families, are gallant and worthy, woo the beautiful princess. But none of them is able to captivate the heart of a young girl. Suddenly, Aurora notices an old woman in the corner of the garden, in whose hands is a spindle. The girl runs up to her, takes the spindle in her hands and begins to spin with him in a dance, imagining that she is dancing with her lover. Carelessly touching the sharp end of the spindle, Aurora falls unconscious and falls into a deep sleep. The princes summoned to the ball rush to seize the culprit of the misfortune, but the old woman, whom, as it turns out, the evil fairy Carabosse turned into, laughs loudly and disappears, pleased with the accomplished atrocity. The Lilac Fairy Godmother decides to help royal family in this unimaginable grief and plunges the entire court into sleep along with Aurora for a whole 100 years, so that everyone can witness the promised miraculous awakening of the princess.

A century has passed, and now, making his way through the dense thickets while hunting, the handsome prince Desire finds himself with his retinue in an abandoned garden. Hunters and escorts start dancing and having fun here. Suddenly, on a majestic boat, the Lilac Fairy, already familiar to the viewer, floats up the river. Appearing to the prince, she shows him the way to the castle, where the king and queen, servants and courtiers froze for a century, where everything is peacefully resting young Aurora. The prince in amazement examines the picture that has opened before him - people frozen without movement. He calls out to the king, the butler, but does not receive an answer, and then notices the sleeping beauty Aurora. The prince is so amazed by the amazing beauty of the girl that he immediately leans down to kiss her. From a gentle kiss, the princess wakes up, and the castle and all its inhabitants come to life at the same moment. Prince Desire asks for the hand of Aurora from her royal father. The tale ends with a solemn wedding ceremony for the newlyweds.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• Each act of the ballet is an independent work, like a part of a symphony - closed and complete in its form.
• The play has a deep philosophical meaning, contrasting the Lilac fairy and the Carabosse fairy, which personifies the eternal struggle between good and evil, and the result of the fairy tale is the all-conquering power pure love Aurora and Desiree.
• Before Tchaikovsky, this fairy tale was staged in the form of a ballet by the French composer Herold, who created a production called “ La Belle au bois dormant"("Beauty of the Sleeping Forest") in 1829.
• The ballet has become one of the most expensive premieres Mariinsky Theater- 42 thousand rubles were allocated for it (a quarter of the annual budget of theaters in St. Petersburg).
• The scenography for the 2011 ballet in Moscow was staged by Ezio Frigerio, an Oscar-winning artist for his work on the set of Cyrano de Bergerac.
• The name of King Florestan XIV in honor of the King of France Louis XIV, considered one of the founders of the ballet genre.

• The author wrote music for the ballet while traveling around Europe, and while working on The Sleeping Beauty he visited Paris, Marseille, Tiflis, Constantinople, and then, returning to Moscow, provided the finished work.
• Vsevolzhsky decided to stage a ballet based on a French fairy tale for political reasons, ardently supporting the course of the tsar Alexander III closer to France.
• The choreographer and director of The Sleeping Beauty was born in Belgium and from the age of 9 he took part in productions staged by his father. From 1847 until the end of his life he lived and worked in Russia.
• In Matthew Bourne's 2013 modernist production, Aurora is in love with a royal gardener named Leo, and the source of evil is the son of an evil witch who wants to avenge his mother.
• In 1964, the Soviet film-ballet The Sleeping Beauty was filmed, where the choreographer Sergeev was involved. The main role in the film was played by the ballerina Alla Sizova, for which she was awarded the French Dance Academy Prize.

Popular numbers from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty"

Waltz from act I (listen)

Pas d'action adagio (listen)

Lilac Fairy (listen)

Puss in boots and white cat(listen)

Music

Despite the fact that the ballet was created on the basis of an old French fairy tale, the music written by Tchaikovsky is absolutely Russian in its lyrical component and emotional richness. In this ballet, each musical movement is a brilliant masterpiece, developing from scene to scene and culminating in the apotheosis of the triumph of love in the form of a grand adagio at the end of the performance.

With his work, Tchaikovsky not only describes the plot, he reflects the contradictions inner peace of man, that eternal struggle of light and darkness that goes on in the soul of everyone, regardless of era and country. Musical accompaniment becomes the finishing touch of the story, its integral part.

The music of the great maestro has undergone various changes over the decades of productions of The Sleeping Beauty. The exact chronology of these changes during the existence of the ballet in the imperial theater could only be reconstructed from posters. So, almost immediately after the start of the show, the third act lost the slow Sarabande, and a little later - the variations of the Lilac fairy, and the minuet was excluded from the peasant dance suite. In the 20s of the 20th century, in the prologue, the scene of the appearance of the Carabosse fairy and the scenes of hunters' dances were reduced.

Each director of the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" changes the original score in one way or another in accordance with their own ideas.

The history of the creation of "Sleeping Beauty"

The premiere of the ballet took place on January 3, 1890 at the Mariinsky Theater and made a splash. The idea to embody this amazing fairy tale on stage came to the head of the director of the Imperial Theaters Vsevolzhsky Ivan Alexandrovich, who, in addition to his high-ranking service, was engaged in literature, wrote scripts and was known as a bright theatrical figure of his time. It is Vsevolzhsky, together with the famous choreographer Marius Petipa took up writing the libretto for the production. The splendor of the court during the reign of Louis XIV became the basis of the scenes and the general spirit of the ballet, and the majestic music had to correspond and reveal the fairy tale from a new side. The director of the theaters was so imbued with the Sleeping Beauty ballet that he even created sketches for the costumes of the actors with his own hands.

It was proposed to write musical accompaniment for the performance Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky . Vsevolzhsky and Petipa provided the composer with an exceptionally accurate plan of the ballet, which was calculated literally to every bar, so the musician required very precise and laborious work. He, in turn, created a truly unique work, which became a real breakthrough in the field of ballet music of that time. Raising the bar very high, "Sleeping Beauty" has become a kind of benchmark for long years, for the first time making music for ballet the highest category of art.

The choreography of the production did not lag behind the musical theme -M. Petipa embodied the perfection of movements in every act, making the dance incredibly logical and thought out to the smallest detail. It was thanks to his efforts that The Sleeping Beauty turned into an anthology of classical ballet, incorporating all of its most refined and finest elements.

The Sleeping Beauty became not only the most beautiful, but also the most expensive production of the Mariinsky Theatre, and to this day remains a recognized masterpiece. ballet art.

Productions

After the premiere of The Sleeping Beauty in St. Petersburg, Marius Petipa brought the performance to the Italian La Scala, where the audience saw the new ballet for the first time in 1896. At the same time, the part of Princess Aurora was played by Carlotta Brianza, just like in Russia. In 1989, the Moscow Imperial Troupe received permission to stage the performance at the Bolshoi Theatre. The production was directed by Alexander Gorsky, the orchestra was conducted by Andrey Arends, and in leading role the beauty of Aurora was performed by Lyubov Roslavleva. The Moscow version completely preserved Petipa's choreography.

In 1910, the Sleeping Beauty became a happy chance for the entrepreneur of the Russian Seasons Sergei Diaghilev who was in charge of staging ballet "The Firebird" in Paris. However, the accompanist could not complete the work within the specified time, so he went for some substitution and staged the dance of the Blue Bird and Florine princesses from the Sleeping Beauty performance, dressing them in colorful oriental costumes. Since the French did not see the Russian production, they received the performance well, which was specially named “The Firebird” for this occasion.

In 1914, the ballet was resumed at the Bolshoi Theater, but under the direction of Nikolai Sergeev, who relied on the notes of his teacher Stepanov. Sergeev's version was brought to London in 1921, and in 1922 the production returned to where it began its triumphal procession - to the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Throughout the 20th century, The Sleeping Beauty was successfully staged on various stages in many countries, becoming a real world heritage of art. One only big theater I saw seven different versions of the ballet, each of which was not inferior to the others in beauty and grandeur.

After a long and global renovation in 2011, the Bolshoi Theater again met its audience with the Sleeping Beauty ballet, where the role of Aurora was played by Svetlana Zakharova, and the role of Prince Desire was played by American David Holberg.

There are several contemporary readings of the play that use classical music Tchaikovsky to accompany modernist choreography. One of these original productions, which deserves special attention, is Matthew Bourne's ballet - a gothic fairy tale with a pronounced love line, where, according to the plot, Aurora wakes up in modern world which, however, is remarkably surreal.

The production of the Spanish choreographer Duato is an extraordinary look at classic. Nacho Duato tried to speak with the audience in the language of dance and recreate the charm of the magic of a children's fairy tale, while maintaining the romantic spirit of the famous work.

”is recognized as a true world masterpiece of ballet art, setting a high standard for many generations to come. The stunning success of the performance in 1890, when royal family, the echo of applause is repeated in our days. immortal music Tchaikovsky , classical choreography with original elements or completely modified, luxurious scenery and exquisite costumes, the magic of a children's fairy tale and the deep problems of eternal philosophical questions - all this merged into a spectacle of incredible beauty and pomp, which is definitely worth seeing.

Video: watch the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" by Tchaikovsky

The christening of Princess Aurora is celebrated in the palace of King Florestan. Master of Ceremonies Catalabutte checks the list of invitations sent to fairy fairies and guests.
Everything is ready for the opening of the holiday.
Trumpet sounds. The King and Queen greet the audience. The nurses bring in the cradle with the newborn Princess Aurora. Catalabutt announces the arrival of sorceresses - good fairies.
The Lilac Fairy, the main godmother of Princess Aurora, appears. She is surrounded by fairies and pages. Fairies give gifts to the newborn. Thanks to these gifts, the princess will be beautiful and gentle, frisky and carefree, generous and courageous. The Lilac Fairy approaches the cradle to bring her gift.
There is noise. This is the powerful and evil fairy Carabosse. Catalabutte is in despair, how could he have made such a terrible mistake, forgetting to send an invitation to the Fairy Carabosse. The King and Queen are excited: a mistake can lead to many misfortunes in the fate of their child.
Carabosse appears accompanied by an ugly retinue. In vain the King and Queen ask for forgiveness from the terrible old woman. She decided to take revenge. Carabosse plucks tufts of hair from Catalabutte's head and pronounces his verdict on Aurora: “Yes, she will be the most beautiful, the most seductive and feminine, the most intelligent of all the princesses in the world. But, having pricked herself with a spindle, she will fall asleep, and her sleep will be eternal. The King, Queen and the whole court are shocked.
The Lilac Fairy calms everyone, because she has not yet had time to bring her gift: she has the last word: Aurora will fall asleep, as the Carabosse fairy wished, but not forever. The day will come when the young prince, fascinated by her beauty, will give her a kiss, wake her from a long sleep and Aurora will become his wife.

STEP ONE
In the park of the palace of King Florestan, the coming of age of Princess Aurora is celebrated. At the time of preparation for the holiday, Catalabute notices villagers having fun knitting. He orders the guards to arrest them. After all, spindles, needles and knitting needles are objects prohibited by the decree of the King.
The King and Queen appear in the park, accompanied by courtiers and four princes, pretenders to the hand of Princess Aurora. Frightened villagers beg for mercy. Catalabutt announces the reason for the arrest and shows the physical evidence. King Florestan is angry, he orders the execution of the villagers and Catalabute for violating his decree. Courtiers and princes are asked to spare the guilty in honor of the holiday. The king is relentless. And only the prayers of the Queen touch the heart of the King. The pardoned are released from custody.
Aurora appears. The four princes are amazed by the beauty of the Princess. The King and Queen persuade their daughter to choose a groom. Aurora happily dances with suitors, but does not choose anyone - she is still so young.
Suddenly, in the crowd, Aurora notices an old woman who is beating time with a spindle. The old woman gives her the spindle, and Aurora begins to dance with it. Suddenly, the dance is interrupted, the princess looks in horror at her hand, which she pricked with a spindle, and falls dead.
The old woman throws off her cloak and everyone recognizes the Carabosse fairy. With a devilish laugh, she disappears.
The Lilac Fairy appears, she comforts her parents; their daughter will sleep for a hundred years, but so that nothing changes for her happiness, everyone will fall asleep with her. The sleeping princess is taken to the palace and everyone falls asleep.

ACT TWO

One day, Prince Desiree is hunting in the forest. On the lawn, the retinue entertains him with dances. Desiree is left alone in anticipation important events in life. A mother-of-pearl boat floats on the river.
The Lilac Fairy descends from it. With a wave magic wand Fairy has a vision of a sleeping Aurora. The rays of the setting sun illuminate it with pink light. Prince Desire falls in love with a vision of young Aurora and is ready to follow the Lilac Fairy. The vision disappears, but the image of a young beauty remains in the Prince's soul.
The prince rushes to the feet of the fairy and begs her to show the way to Aurora. The sorceress leads him to her boat, which immediately sets off.
Night falls, the moon illuminates the boat with a silvery light, the Lilac Fairy and the Prince, who is striving for Aurora.
Sleeping Beauty Castle. Princess Aurora sleeps on a canopy bed. She has a dream: Prince Charming comes to wake her up and she falls in love with this prince...
The Lilac Fairy and Prince Desire are approaching the castle. Carabosse and her retinue guard the dream of Princess Aurora, but nothing can stop the Prince in his quest to be close to the Princess. Prince Desiree runs up to the sleeping Aurora and kisses her. The witchcraft of the evil Carabosse disappears: Princess Aurora wakes up, and with her the whole court. Dust and cobwebs dissipate, candles light up the room. The Prince begs the King to give him his daughter in marriage. The king joins the hands of young people.

ACT THREE
Wedding of Aurora and Desiree. The palace is preparing for the ball.
The courtiers gather for a feast. The heroes of fairy tales are invited there - Puss in Boots and the White Cat, the Blue Bird and Princess Florine, Little Red Riding Hood and Gray wolf, Cinderella and Prince Fortune. Everyone is dancing, having fun and rejoicing. This holiday is the victory of Good over Evil.

Last Saturday, Kolya (10 years old) and I visited the Theater on Serpukhovka for a performance of The Sleeping Beauty.
This is the premiere performance of this season. Live music baroque, colorful costumes and scenery and a slightly changed plot to make it more interesting for the audience to watch - as a result, we get a wonderful musical for the whole family!

The birth of a princess is a celebration for the entire kingdom. The guests have fun, and the sorceresses give the child gifts that are more valuable than gold and emeralds: wisdom, beauty, kindness and, of course, love. But then an evil witch appears and predicts death. You know, only now, at the age of 40, it dawned on me why the sorceress dreams of the death of a young princess. It's just jealousy! Evil heart cannot love, but can only envy and kill.
Nobody wants to believe in a future death and parents forbid all piercing objects. Years pass and now the girl becomes an adult. On this occasion, a ball was again in the palace.

I want to separately note tricks, illusions and special effects - all this additionally conveyed the fabulousness of the plot. We sat close, everything was perfectly visible and audible.

Eminent guests come to the ball to the young princess, who dream of seeing the beauty as their wife. But the princess's heart is already taken, she is waiting for a handsome prince, and today she should receive a bouquet and a marriage proposal from him.
But, alas, the evil sorceress is not ready to put up with someone else's happiness and sends trolls with a poisoned rose to the palace.
The prince, meanwhile, is waiting for a messenger with an answer from the princess. But there will be no answer, there will only be a sleeping castle. This means that you yourself must follow your lady of the heart, fight with external and internal enemies.

Of course, good will win, the princess will wake up, and evil spells will be dispelled. I loved this story very much as a child. Maybe I want to believe that there is something on earth stronger than death- and this is love!

In "Theatrium" I am a frequent visitor with my son. We have already watched The Flying Ship, The Flint, The Prince and the Pauper, The Scarlet Flower. I really like the level and thoughtfulness of each production. All performances are played at a high professional level, everything is worked out to the smallest detail: music, light, scenery. Yes, we like some performances more, some less. For example, my favorites for several years now are The Prince and the Pauper and The Flying Ship. But any production is a very high level. I consider this theater one of the best children's theaters in the capital and I warmly recommend it to everyone.

Of the minuses: upset the public, children and adults behaved just awful. Unfortunately, many go to the theater for the show, and not for the action itself. It is extremely difficult to play for such an audience, thanks to the actors who, in spite of everything, give all the best.

Price:
3000- 40.000 rub

Ballet "Sleeping Beauty"

Ticket price:

from 3000 rub

Duration - 2 hours 40 minutes.

The State Academic Bolshoi Theater presents a luxurious premiere - the ballet by P.I. Tchaikovsky "The Sleeping Beauty" in a new choreographic version by Yuri Grigorovich. The Sleeping Beauty is one of those wonderful gifts that the Bolshoi Theater has prepared for its many fans in honor of the completion of the grandiose reconstruction of the building and the resumption of performances on the famous historical stage. Book tickets, give joy to yourself and your loved ones! Despite the fact that the fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty" was written by the French storyteller Charles Perrault, the ballet seems to be primordially Russian thanks to the heartfelt, lyrical, emotional music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. This music, sometimes festive and bright, sometimes romantic and spiritual, from the first notes sounded, immerses the audience in an amazing atmosphere of a miracle. The main musical theme of the ballet is the opposition of good and evil, embodied by the Lilac fairy and the Carabosse fairy. The plot of the fairy tale is loved and familiar to each of us since childhood. The king and queen have a long-awaited daughter, Princess Aurora. Invited to the christening, the little fairies-sorceresses generously shower the girl with gifts. But the king's master of ceremonies, Catalabute, forgets to invite the evil fairy Carabosse to the feast. In revenge, Carabosse casts her spell on Aurora - on the day of her coming of age, the princess is destined to prick herself with a spindle and fall asleep forever. Thanks to the good fairy Lilac, witchcraft is softened - the princess can be saved if she is kissed by the prince in love ...

The Sleeping Beauty is a spiritual symphony of music and dance, magical and harmonious, a ballet in which beauty and goodness triumph over the forces of any evil. The script for the ballet was developed by the famous 19th century choreographer Marius Petipa. Tchaikovsky created music in constant collaboration with this brilliant master. The composer wrote that working on the ballet gives him great pleasure. It was convenient for Tchaikovsky to work on Petipa's script, since it contained many valuable indications about musical side dances and imagery, pantomime numbers. The composer's brother, Modest Tchaikovsky, noted that Pyotr Ilyich willingly obeyed these instructions, wrote music with inspiration and quickly. On January 3, 1890, the premiere of the ballet The Sleeping Beauty took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, the ballet was repeatedly staged on various stages and entered the repertoire the best theaters, but the performance was always based on the classical choreography of Marius Petipa, although each choreographer tried to bring something individual to it.

Libretto by Ivan Vsevolozhsky and Marius Petipa based on the fairy tales of Charles Perrault

Choreography - Marius Petipa
(new choreographic version by Yuri Grigorovich (2011)
Scenography — Ezio Frigerio
Conductor - Vasily Sinaisky
Costume Designer — Franca Squarciapino
Lighting Designer — Vinicio Keli
Production designer assistants (Italy) — Leila Fteita, Oscar Cafaro
Costume Designer Assistant (Italy) — Laura Lo Surdo

Ballet in 3 acts with prologue and apotheosis.

Choreography Marius Petipa, Natalia Kasatkina, Vladimir Vassilev.

Libretto on fairy tales Charles Perrault Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vassilev.

Scenography and costumes - Honored Artist of Russia Elizaveta Dvorkina.

The duration of the performance is 2 hours 40 minutes.

This production of the famous Tchaikovsky ballet is the original author's version of the ballet masters Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyev. Having preserved all the classical masterpieces of the great Marius Petipa's choreography, the directors sated the music with new action. Thanks to the combination of the plots of two fairy tales - "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast", the content of the ballet has become more dynamic, intriguing and magical.

Sleeping Beauty - Libretto

The kingdom is preparing for Princess Aurora's 17th birthday. Weavers weave a tapestry with her portrait. The princess has not yet woken up, the congratulations of the Lilac Fairy and her retinue are accepted by the Queen. The joyful mood is interrupted by the fairy Carabosse. They forgot to invite her to the party. Carabosse brutally cracks down on the chief master of ceremonies Catalabutte, predicts a terrible fate for Aurora - the Princess will prick herself with a knitting needle and die! The King and Queen are terrified! The good fairy Lilac calms them down - the Princess will not die, but will fall asleep for several centuries. Aurora will be awakened by the kiss of the handsome Prince.

BACKGROUND OF "SLEEPING BEAUTY".

Everyone knows the fairy tale about the Sleeping Beauty and everyone loves the wonderful Tchaikovsky-Petipa ballet. But not everyone knows that initially the plot of this fairy tale was such that if it were shown on stage (whether in ballet or drama), then the age category would have to be 18+.

"The Riddle of the Blue Bird"

We are talking about the characters of the wonderful "fabulous" divertissement at the wedding of Princess Aurora and Prince Desire, who are much less known than Little Red Riding Hood and the Gray Wolf, Puss in Boots or Boy-with-Thumb.