The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)

The Sleeping Beauty (Russian: Спящая красавица, romanized: Spyashchaya krasavitsa listenⓘ) is a ballet in a prologue and three acts to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 66, completed in 1889.

The original scenario was by Ivan Vsevolozhsky after Perrault's La belle au bois dormant, or The Beauty Sleeping in the Forest; the first choreographer was Marius Petipa.

The premiere took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890, and from that year forward The Sleeping Beauty has remained one of the most famous ballets of all time.

[1] Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on 25 May 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation on the subject of the story of Undine.

It was later decided that Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would compose the music for the ballet.

Tchaikovsky did not hesitate to accept the commission, although he was aware that his only previous ballet, Swan Lake, was met with little enthusiasm at that stage of his career.

However, Vsevolozhsky incorporated Perrault's other characters from his stories into the ballet, such as Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Bluebird, Bluebeard, Ricky of the Tuft and Tom Thumb.

Regardless, Tchaikovsky was happy to inform the Director of the Imperial Theatre that he had great pleasure studying the work and came away with adequate inspiration to do it justice.

Act III 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.

The ballet's premiere received more favorable accolades than Swan Lake from the press but Tchaikovsky never had the luxury of being able to witness his work become an instant success in theatres outside of Russia.

Each fairy brings a gift of a virtue or positive trait, such as beauty, courage, sweetness, musical talent, and mischief.

Carabosse gleefully tears his wig off and beats him with her staff, before placing a curse upon the baby princess as revenge: Aurora will indeed grow up to be a beautiful, healthy, delightful young lady, but on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle and die.

The master of ceremonies discovers several peasant ladies frolicking about with knitting needles and alerts the King, who initially sentences the women to a harsh punishment.

The princess is carried off to bed, and the Lilac Fairy casts a spell of slumber over the entire kingdom, which will only be broken when Aurora awakens.

Prologue — Le baptême de la Princesse Aurore Act I — Les quatre fiancés de la Princesse Aurore Act II, Scene I — La chasse du Prince Désiré Act II, Scene II — Le château de la belle au bois dormant Act III — Les noces de Désiré et d'Aurore In 2007, The Walt Disney Company registered a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the name "Princess Aurora" that was to cover production and distribution of motion picture films; production of television programs; production of sound and video recordings.