Ballet Ensemble and Orchestra of the SNG Opera in balet Ljubljana: The Sleeping Beauty

Libretto: Ivan A. Vsevolozski, Marius Petipa
Choreography after M. Petipa: Irek Mukhamedov
Set design: Andrej Stražišar
Costume design: Marija Levitska
Lighting design: Andrej Hajdinjak
Conductor: TBA

Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including an interval

Beside Frédéric Chopin and Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was the first Slav master to become firmly embedded within the Western musical canon. His ballets, which had become classics even before World War I, continue to be some of the world’s most popular and frequently performed dance pieces, as they keep thrilling the audiences with their themes, clarity, poetic style and accomplished artistic expression. Tchaikovsky’s ballets have been delighting Slovenian audiences since 1921, when his Swan Lake was performed in Ljubljana for the first time and then followed by The Nutcracker in 1940 and The Sleeping Beauty in 1964.

In 1890, when Tchaikovsky was already a well-established composer, the St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre curtain was raised for the first time for the premiere of the latest ballet production, named by many 'the event of the century and the event of great artistic importance', as the public’s interest was immense, and the performance was the “talk of the town” long time before its premiere. This event was quite decisive for triggering countless important impulses, i.e.: the revolution of ballet music, the constitution of Russian ballet style and our century’s classical ballet revival. The Sleeping Beauty, which is considered even today the purest work of the classical ballet repertoire, is also important for the historic encounter between the two greatest and most celebrated artists - Tchaikovsky and Petipa. After the initial fiasco of his probably most famous ballet Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky gave up writing ballet music for quite some time, whereas Petipa added to his inclination towards Western ballet tradition, based primarily on the French school and style, the elements of Russian ballet school as well as of the Italian school, as developed during the 19th century, thus creating a style of his very own, which immediately earned a reputation of being elegant, aristocratic and brilliant as well as fluent and Russian at the same time. Petipa mostly followed the example of the established classical ballet performance style, for which the music was mainly composed by Cesare Pugni and Ludwig Minkus, and demanded of the composer some significant alterations in the score. The composer patiently followed his instructions and as a result The Sleeping Beauty prevailed for ever as Petipa's strongest and most advanced work, in which the choreographer began a long, hard and persistent search for the fusion between the symphonic synthesis and choreography. It may as well be said that it was actually Petipa who reached the peak of the art of choreographing in the 19th century and thus paved the way for the revival of classical ballet in the 20th century. This ballet's plotline is closely related to the story La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty) by Charles Perrault, which is known today for its numerous theatrical, cinematic and other adaptations. The ballet version is flavoured with a touch of magic and romance, which Petipa succeeded in recreating in highly intricate details. He added even more fantastical figures to amalgamate everything into a virtuoso classical ballet performance with numerous pas de deux, variations and romantic ensemble scenes, the most outstanding among which are the famous Rose Adagio, the dramatic Carabosse's appearance and the dreamy, lyrical scene of the second act’s Grand pas de deux …