Holiday Ballet Watchlist: The Sleeping Beauty

Time for a fairytale ballet!  Next on the watchlist is the Staatsballett Berlin production of The Sleeping Beauty.  Premiered in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre, The Sleeping Beauty is often considered the pinnacle of classical ballet. The music was composed by Tchaikovsky, with choreography by Marius Petipa, who created an exacting and richly detailed work that showcases the elegance of academic ballet.

The ballet was designed as a grand spectacle, inspired by French court dances and fairy tales, and it remains a benchmark for stylistic purity, musicality, and classical form.

Princess Aurora is cursed by the fairy Carabosse to prick her finger and die on her sixteenth birthday. A gentler fairy softens the curse so that Aurora will instead fall into a deep sleep, along with the entire kingdom. A hundred years later, Prince Désiré awakens her with a kiss, restoring life and joy to the court. The ballet concludes with a lavish wedding celebration featuring beloved fairy-tale characters.