Sleeping Beauty the Ballet

The composer Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on May 25, 1888, about a possible musical treatment of a ballet based on Charles Perrault’s La Belle au bois Dormant. The ballet scenario which Tchaikovsky worked on ends with the Princess’ parents, the King and the Queen, having survived the 100 years sleep to celebrate the Princess’ wedding to the Prince. The ballet’s focus was undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse), with a recurring musical theme representing both of them running through the entire ballet and serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Act 3 of the work, however, takes a complete break from the two motifs and instead places focus on the individual characters of the various court dances.

Having died in 1893, Tchaikovsky never had the luxury of being able to witness his work become a success outside of Russia. But by 1903, Sleeping Beauty was the second most popular ballet in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet, having been preformed 200 times in only 10 years. In wasn’t until 1921, however, when the ballet was produced in London, that it finally gained wide acclaim and a permanent place in the classical repertoire.