The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)

The Sleeping Beauty
Alexandra Ansanelli and David Makhateli take their bows during a Royal Ballet production of The Sleeping Beauty on 29 April 2008
Choreographed by	Marius Petipa
Composed by	Tchaikovsky
Libretto by	Marius Petipa Ivan Vsevolojsky
Based on	Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood"
Date of premiere	15 January 1890
Place of premiere	Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg
Original ballet company	Mariinksky Ballet
Characters	Princess Aurora Prince Désiré Lilac Fairy Carabosse King Florestan XXIV His Queen Catalabutte Good Fairies, Courtiers, etc.
Designs by	Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Setting	King Florestan's palace and a woodland glade in the 17th and 18th centuries
Genre	Fantasy
Type	Classical

The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts. Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozhsky wrote the story of the ballet. It was based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". Tchaikovsky wrote the music. Marius Petipa designed the dances. The Sleeping Beauty was first presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 15 January 1890. Carlotta Brianza danced the Princess and Pavel Gerdt the Prince, with Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy and Enrico Cecchetti as Carabosse. It was first presented in Europe in a shortened version by the Ballets Russes in London on 2 November 1921. Catherine Littlefield designed the first complete Sleeping Beauty in the United States, and presented the production on 12 February 1937 at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, with the Philadelphia Ballet.^[1]

1. ↑ Balanchine pp. 393-4.