American Ballet Theatre has presented six different productions of The Sleeping Beauty over the years. While the version that premiered last weekend on the Metropolitan Opera stage at Lincoln Center in New York City is recognizable to anyone familiar with the oft-told fairy tale, it is a radical departure in some respects, which begs the question as to whether it will stand the test of finicky critics and balletomaines who usually like their classics served straight up and expect nothing short of brilliance from this world famous dance company.
The Sleeping Beauty, like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker — all with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky — is among the most beloved and oft performed classical ballets. No company worth its tutus fails to dance it — and dance it in a form that would be recognizable to Marius Petipa, its first and foremost choreographer (1890) as maître de ballet of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg.
The new American Ballet Theatre version that the Dear Friend & Conscience and I saw at the Met last night apparently is the first that is a collaboration between a company’s artistic director and a former ballerina who has danced the title role of Princess Aurora.
They would be Kevin McKenzie and Gelsey Kirkland, with a big assist from Kirkland’s husband, Michael Chernov, in the capacity of dramaturge (playright).
The dynamic trio’s production is more or less true to the original story:
The evil fairy Caraboose, upset that she has been omitted from the A-List for the christening of Princess Aurora, pricks the princess’s finger with a spindle, condemning her to death instead of a life of unimaginable perfection that would inevitably lead to marriage to an unimaginably perfect prince. The Lilac Fairy intervenes, promising King Florestan and his queen that Princess Aurora will not die, but instead will fall into a deep sleep which will end with the kiss of a king’s son who will marry her. Sigh.
The most ostensible departures in the new The Sleeping Beauty are . . .
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