Sleeping Beauty

The crown jewel of classical ballet — Petipa’s fairy-tale spectacle to Tchaikovsky’s grandest score, performed at the Peabody Auditorium in June 2022.

The Tale in Four Parts

1. The Christening — The kingdom celebrates Princess Aurora’s birth, and the fairies bestow their gifts. Uninvited and unforgiving, the fairy Carabosse curses the child: on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger and die. The Lilac Fairy softens the curse — not death, but a hundred years’ sleep.
2. The Spindle — At Aurora’s sixteenth-birthday celebration she dances the famous Rose Adagio with four suitors. A hooded stranger presses a spindle into her hand; she pricks her finger, and the whole court falls asleep with her.
3. The Vision — A century later the Lilac Fairy leads Prince Désiré through the enchanted forest to the sleeping princess. One kiss breaks the spell.
4. The Wedding — The court wakes, and the fairy-tale world turns out to celebrate: Puss in Boots, the Bluebird, Red Riding Hood, and all the fairies dance at Aurora and Désiré’s wedding.