Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts - Opera House

Dates: November 21-23, 2017

About

The life-changing meeting between Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa was initiated by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theatres. It was his idea to stage a ballet based on the French fairy-tale. He wrote the libretto; he created the unbelievably beautiful costumes and he was the co-creator of the miracle born from the genius of two great maestri.

The Sleeping Beauty was both completely traditional and utterly fresh. Its music, like other ballet scores of the latter half of the 19th century, had been composed according to the choreographer’s specific plan with indications as to the number of bars and the nature of their sound. But the execution of the commission did not limit Tchaikovsky’s music to the expected dance character alone. The ballet resounded with full-blooded exemplary symphonism. Its melodic richness could not but inspire great achievements. Tchaikovsky’s work did not inspire Petipa to undertake revolutionary steps. In the music the choreographer heard harmony. And his Sleeping Beauty was not a search for new methods; rather in its ideal construction it assembled together everything that the choreographer had done over his many years of work at the St Petersburg Theatre.

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts - Opera House

Dates: November 21-23, 2017

About

The life-changing meeting between Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa was initiated by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theatres. It was his idea to stage a ballet based on the French fairy-tale. He wrote the libretto; he created the unbelievably beautiful costumes and he was the co-creator of the miracle born from the genius of two great maestri.

The Sleeping Beauty was both completely traditional and utterly fresh. Its music, like other ballet scores of the latter half of the 19th century, had been composed according to the choreographer’s specific plan with indications as to the number of bars and the nature of their sound. But the execution of the commission did not limit Tchaikovsky’s music to the expected dance character alone. The ballet resounded with full-blooded exemplary symphonism. Its melodic richness could not but inspire great achievements. Tchaikovsky’s work did not inspire Petipa to undertake revolutionary steps. In the music the choreographer heard harmony. And his Sleeping Beauty was not a search for new methods; rather in its ideal construction it assembled together everything that the choreographer had done over his many years of work at the St Petersburg Theatre.