The Sleeping Beauty

Tchaikovsky and The Sleeping Beauty

Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose music for the ballet by the director of the Imperial Theatres in 1889. The work gave him pleasure, as his passion for ballet had become evident when he was composing Swan Lake. Moreover, while he did not get any support for his first ballet, in the case of The Sleeping Beauty, he was assisted by professional colleagues, or rather co-authors, in the persons of Marius Petipa and the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky. Today it might seem strange for a composer to be given a complete libretto with the draft of the choreography broken down into bars, but in the Russia of Petipa’s day, this was not unusual at all. These are the instruction Tchaikovsky received for the entrance of the title character in Act I: “No. 7. General rejoicing. 16 bars in order to take places and begin the waltz cantabile (smooth). The corps de ballet with large and small garlands of flowers, which they prepared for Aurora’s birthday. Waltz of 150 b[ars]. No. 8. The four princes have still not seen Princess Aurora. Their ardent wish is to cause her to love them. Each to himself admires a medallion with a likeness of the young Princess. Music which expresses a tender agitation, 24 b[ars], making a transition into No. 9. Aurora’s entrance. 2/4, coquettish, pointed – 32 b[ars]. End with 6/8, forte, 16 b[ars].” These constraints did not hinder Tchaikovsky; to the contrary, he was positively inspired by this kind of work when he was able to imagine the situations unfolding. On the other hand, the fairy-tale ballet The Nutcracker, which was premiered three years later, caused him real trouble, because he did not know what to do with the Land of Sweets and the Magic Castle…

Returning to The Sleeping Beauty, composition was going smoothly and the rehearsals had even begun in the spring of 1889 when the composer had to face one of the unfavourable practices of the ballet life of that era: some numbers were changed, and Riccardo Drigo – himself a ballet composer and the conductor of the premiere – rearranged some parts. Tchaikovsky had already experienced a similar occurrence at the Moscow premiere of Swan Lake in 1877, so now, 13 years later, he accepted the changes submissively but restored the orchestration according to his own taste. These changes mainly affected the variations of the Jewel Fairies (Gold and Sapphire) in Act III and the female variation on the pas d’action in Act II.

It is difficult to talk about the music of a ballet in its entirety while at the same time ignoring the choreography. It is certain that the popularity of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker overshadows that of The Sleeping Beauty, and it is only the latter’s grand waltz and the Panorama (when the Lilac Fairy escorts the prince to the Sleeping Beauty) that are performed in concert halls occasionally. Nevertheless, I believe that the music of The Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovsky’s most coherent ballet music, and can be regarded as one of the masterpieces of its era. The Russian maestro presented the situations and the characters perfectly in his music (for instance, the appearance of Carabosse’s and her pronouncement of the curse) and created excitement and tension in an excellent manner. Obviously, it took a true genius to create music of such high quality within the limits of the libretto, which was there to serve the dancing. Tchaikovsky also found it important to highlight the musical parallels that corresponded with the concept of the ballet, for example the relationship between the Sun King’s court and the “glorious” reign of Tsar Alexander III. This was the reason why the ballet includes Baroque dances (a farandole and a sarabande) and, in the apotheosis, the anthem of the Bourbon kings of France, known today as as Vive Henri IV, which had been the anthem of the country before the French Revolution. It seems somewhat unfortunate that all Tsar Alexander II could think to say to Tchaikovsky after the St. Petersburg premiere on 15 January 1890 was that the music of The Sleeping Beauty was charming.

Márk Gara

Sir Peter Wright – fascinated by ballet

Peter Wright was born in London in 1926. His life changed when he saw a performance of Les Sylphides (Chopiniana) at age 16. A year later he left his parents’ home and auditioned for Ninette de Valois’s ballet school, but was not admitted. Instead, he spent two years with the touring dance company headed by the German Expressionist dancer Kurt Jooss before returning to Classical ballet, which he studied with Vera Volkova and others.

In 1949 he joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, which has been called Royal Ballet since 1956. Ninette de Valois named Wright to lead the ballet of the Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1955. Their task was to perform the ballet interludes necessary for the performances of the opera, but this position soon gave Peter Wright the opportunity to start a career as a choreographer. He created his choreography A Blue Rose in 1957, and two years later he was appointed a teacher at the Royal Ballet School.

In 1961 Wright decide to join the Stuttgart Ballet headed by his former colleague at Sadler’s Wells, John Cranko, as a ballet master and choreographer. For the German ensemble, he created works that included The Mirror Walkers, Namouna, Design for Dancers. It was also in Stuttgart where he staged Giselle, which brought him international fame. After this, he mainly focused on updating the Romantic and Classical repertoire of the company, and his career was marked with such highly successful works as The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, which has been performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet for more than 40 years. He is also credited with the revival of Massine’s Choreartium.

In 1969 Peter Wright returned to the Royal Ballet to help Kenneth MacMillan’s work in leading the company, and in 1975 he became artistic director with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, today’s Birmingham Royal Ballet. It was under his tenure that the formerly essentially travelling company settled down in the mining city and became an artistic centre and company, and eventually managed to split off from the London Royal Ballet. He retired in 1995, after being knighted in 1993. One of his undying achievements was to turn the present Birmingham Royal Ballet into a superbly trained and independent classical ballet company. In his productions, he worked out the ballets meticulously; all of his works are characterised by a demand for high standards and the excellent use of dramatic effects.

Márk Gara

The choreographer’s thoughts

I can take full responsibility for the choreography, if only because it is based on the original Marius Petipa version. He was the one who created Swan Lake as well, and in this sense, he wrote the bible of classical ballet. However, what we are going to see is not a Petipa choreography; I have changed it a great deal, yet I must say that what is being presented here in Budapest is the variation closest to Petipa. There have been and still are countless The Sleeping Beauty productions worldwide, everyone modifies it according to their own taste, some rewrite it down to the very last movement. I believe that the original version should be preserved as much as possible. We all know that a lot has changed since Petipa’s time: the technique, the dynamics, the standards are different. At the same time, it is reassuring to see that classical ballet still means the same thing in all the major cities of the world. Even though the gestures have transformed, the style, the system of conventions, the way ballet artists move on stage is fundamentally the same. Still, the movement material has to be made somewhat contemporary, because if we used exactly what Petipa used back then, people would be laughing in the auditorium. I must add that The Sleeping Beauty would not be what it is without Philip Prowse’s visual world, sets and costumes, and Tchaikovsky’s music.

What I insist on is the style: how a classical ballet should look, how dancers should hold their elbows, their heads, how they must exist, live or even die on stage. This is the most important thing for me: the drama and the tension. A good choreography, an excellent piece, has an impact on the audience, who afterwards see the world a little differently. Dennis Bonner (the choreographer’s assistant) was eleven years old when he first saw the Giselle I staged, and later he worked as a dancer when I was his ballet director. At the end of his dancing career he learned dance notation, and I called him back because he works wonderfully. His sense of timing and efficiency are brilliant, he always knows his task and is always precise. In his opinion, the Budapest Opera House is a beautiful theatre, as if it had been built for The Sleeping Beauty, and it will be an immense experience to see the work on its stage. This version is also good for the dancers: it demands something very different from their bodies than the usual sequences of movements. The bar has been set high, but everyone in the Hungarian company reaches it.

Sir Peter Wright