The ballet begins with Princess Aurora’s baptism in her father’s castle. King Florestan has invited six fairies: each of them gives the little princess a gift. Suddenly the wicked fairy Carabosse enters, offended because she was not invited to the party. She condemns Aurora to prick her finger on a spindle on her sixteenth birthday and die.
With The Sleeping Beauty, European ballet has completed a circular evolution. At the end of the romantic period in Western Europe ballet was in decline.
The public loved Sleeping Beauty from the beginning. People in St. Petersburg said "Have you seen Sleeping Beauty?" in place of "How are you?" The pure virtuosity of its solos, the delightful processions, and the enchanting adages are as enjoyable today as a century ago.
The good Lilac Fairy comes forward and declares that the princess will not die, she will only sleep until she is awakened by a prince’s kiss.
Sixteen years pass and the princess is now a beautiful girl. At the festivities for her birthday, four princes present themselves to ask her hand. An old woman approaches with a gift that the princess has never seen, a small spinning wheel. The princess pricks her finger on the spindle and falls asleep.
The old woman throws off her disguise revealing Carabosse, triumphant. Enrico Cecchetti (1850 - 1928) danced the part of Carabosse in Petipa's original production.
The Lilac Fairy maintains her promise; everyone falls asleep while a dense forest grows all around the palace. One hundred years later, young prince Desire (or Florimund) stops in a meadow in the forest; the Lilac Fairy offers him a vision of the sleeping Aurora.
Bewitched by her beauty, the prince searches for the castle where the princess sleeps. He comes close to her bed and kisses the princess, who is awakened, with all the others.
The wedding is celebrated in the grandiose ballroom of the palace. Many characters from other fairy tales are present, including Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Particularly famous are the pas de deux of two Blue Birds and the grand pas de deux classique of princess Aurora and prince Desire.
Finally they are married and live happily ever after.
The Sleeping Beauty is a product of the prolific collaboration between the great French choreographer Marius Petipa (1818 - 1910) and the brilliant Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893). It was created for the Russian Imperial Ballet in 1889. The premiere was on 3 January 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Meticulous in his attention to detail, Petipa spent many hours creating the groups of dancers using small wooden figures. He jotted down the final compositions in a notebook.
Stars of the French ballet emigrated to Russia, where they had always been appreciated, and found the monetary and human resources that had not available in Europe for years. With the emigration of the French dancers to Zarist Russia, ballet became a courtly entertainment once again.
This return to the origins is known as the classical period. As a result, many conventions of the ballet that the romantics had eliminated were revived. Folkloristic dances appeared everywhere in ballets; excess was stylish.
The drama was reduced to an outline in which bravura exhibitions could be inserted. The ability to interpret a role, of fundamental importance in romantic ballet, became less and less important.
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