Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty

Director: Monica Mason and Christopher Newton

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Coreographer: Marius Petipa

Conductor: Valeriy Ovsyanikov

Original designs: Oliver Messel

First staged in St Petersburg in 1890, The Sleeping Beauty is the pinnacle of classical
ballet: a perfect marriage of Petipa’s choreography and Tchaikovsky’s music and a
glorious challenge for every dancer on stage. It is also The Royal Ballet’s signature work.
To mark the Company’s 75th birthday in 2006, Monica Mason and Christopher Newton
revitalized its landmark 1946 production, which re-established Petipa’s choreography as
recorded by Imperial Ballet régisseur Nicholas Sergeyev, to a scenario and staging
developed by Ninette de Valois herself, founder of The Royal Ballet. With Oliver Messel’s
gorgeous original designs wonderfully re-imagined by Peter Farmer, and additional
choreography by Anthony Dowell, Christopher Wheeldon and Frederick Ashton, today’s
Sleeping Beauty not only captures the mood of the original but shows that this is very
much a living work for The Royal Ballet, growing and changing with the Company while
celebrating its past.