Dutch National Ballet

The Sleeping Beauty

Marius Petipa / produced and directed by Sir Peter Wright

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Dates

12 October 2022 -2 January 2023

Location

Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Main Stage

Running time

3:10, incl. 2 intermissions

Tickets

From €21

Jewel in the crown

Sir Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty has been the jewel in the crown of Dutch National Ballet’s repertoire for over forty years. This season, the company is awakening the glittering Sleeping Beauty with a kiss no fewer than 21 times, in the period from mid-October to the beginning of January. The demanding variations, brilliant pointe work and pure classical technique make this nineteenth-century fairy-tale ballet the ultimate touchstone for ballet dancers all over the world today.

Photo: Marc Haegeman

Jewel in the crown

Created by the French-Russian choreographer Marius Petipa and the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Sleeping Beauty (1890) was one of the greatest successes of Russian classical ballet. Almost one hundred years later, the Englishman Sir Peter Wright adapted and staged the production for Dutch National Ballet, showing great respect for the original. To this day, it has earned him and the company numerous standing ovations and rave reviews. Wright’s Beauty has all the glamour and allure that befits a production originally intended for the court of the Russian tsar.

Glitter and style

Sir Peter Wright worked on his acclaimed staging of The Sleeping Beauty with set and costume designer Philip Prowse, who decked out the fairy tale in breathtaking gold. Prowse set the story in the French courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which later served as an important model for the tsars’ courts in Russia. Together, Wright and Prowse breathed new life into The Sleeping Beauty, ensuring the heritage of Petipa and Tchaikovsky continue to dazzle and enchant us in the twenty-first century as well.

Stars making their debut

In this new performance series of The Sleeping Beauty, various young stars will be making their debut in the roles of Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund, who wakes Aurora with a kiss after her hundred-year sleep.

Credits

Choreography Marius Petipa
Production and direction Sir Peter Wright

Music Pjotr Iljitsj Tsjaikovski

Musical accompaniment Dutch Ballet Orchestra
conducted by Ermanno Florio (Oct, Nov) en Koen Kessels (Dec)

The recommended age for this performance is 8+.

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The Sleeping Beauty (2017) | Foto: Marc Haegeman

The Sleeping Beauty (2017) | Photo: Marc Haegeman

Dutch Ballet Orchestra

Dutch Ballet Orchestra’s mission is ‘to inspire movement in dance’. Since its inception in 1965, the orchestra has been the proud musical partner of Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. In every performance, the orchestra searches for inspiring synergy between music and dance, in order to give the audience a magical experience.

Dutch Ballet Orchestra

Led by principal conductor Matthew Rowe, Dutch Ballet Orchestra is the leading orchestra for dance in the Netherlands. The orchestra accompanies performances ranging from traditional ballet to modern dance, alongside and is active in music education and talent development.

Besides performances with Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, Dutch Ballet Orchestra has a long tradition of innovative – and award-winning – family performances. For instance, Creatures (in collaboration with ISH) received the international Young Audiences Music Award, and the production Hansel and Gretel (in collaboration with Orkater) won various Musical Awards. In these productions, the musicians play from memory, without a conductor and in costumes, so that they form an integral part of the performance. And finally, Dutch Ballet Orchestra has a long-term partnership with the Dutch National Ballet Academy. They are therefore involved in the music curriculum for pupils and students, facilitate student visits to orchestra rehearsals and provide music for the academy’s end-of-year performance, where possible.

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The story of The Sleeping Beauty

In short
All the fairies are invited by King Florestan to attend the christening of his daughter Aurora. Only Carabosse is not invited. Distraught, this angry fairy bursts in and wishes that Aurora will one day die by pricking herself on the needle of a spinning wheel. The Lilac Fairy manages to turn this curse into a wish for Aurora to sleep for 100 years and be kissed awake by a prince. When Aurora, at the age of 16, indeed pricks herself on such a needle, she falls down. The Lilac Fairy appears and soon puts everyone in the court to sleep. The castle becomes overgrown. And then, 100 years later ...

Read the whole story here