PNB's The Sleeping Beauty Enchants McCaw Hall
It was admittedly with some reservation that I headed to the PNB opening night performance of The Sleeping Beauty last week. I love classical ballet, but I’ve seen the boundary-pushing, über-engaging side of PNB and its offsets, and the full-length storybook ballets are usually classically vanilla, plumped with pomp and circumstance, and several hours long.
But after being significantly schooled by Doug Fullington’s pre-performance lecture, I had a renewed appreciation for The Sleeping Beauty. (And let me say here that I could sit and listen to Fullington talk about ballet for hours). I learned about the artistic partnership between choreographer Marius Petipa and composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, resulting in a ballet so enduring that - following its debut in 1890 - it has been preserved mostly intact, while in comparison we have little idea what other ballet classics, like The Nutcracker, originally even looked like.
I learned about the score and the costuming - a total of over 900 costume pieces, props and wigs (“I’ve never seen so many wigs,” said Fullington); and the stamina and technique and expressiveness required to dance Princess Aurora; how bringing Ronald Hynd in to adapt the staging and choreography for the production directly ties PNB back with the Royal Ballet in London, a company where Hynd was a principle dancer for many years and whose production of The Sleeping Beauty is considered the cornerstone of its repertory.
All this and I hadn’t even seen the show yet! More after the jump.
So here we go: The Sleeping Beauty is, in a word, lovely. It is a lavish production for the eyes and ears, one which allows PNB the opportunity to flaunt the depth of the resources at its disposal, both in terms of budget and the quality of talent - both local and imported - involved in bringing the production to the stage.
Scenic and costume designer Peter Docherty frames his stage with Romantically Draped Curtains, ushering the audience into the marble and gold-leaf palace where the story takes place. His cast is dressed in the heighth of fashion: at Princess Aurora’s christening the king and his court is festooned in the styling of the High Renaissance era and the fairies in beautiful classic tutus and sparkling tiaras (likely resulting in at least one little girl demanding to be enrolled in ballet class).
The fairies dance in a series of sprightly solos to bestow Beauty, Wit, Generosity and so forth upon the infant princess. The court dances in an inordinate number of gold boots. The king and queen lounge in yards of velvet. But as it happens, the disgruntled Carabosse (a charming Olivier Wevers) shows up and manages to get her curse in; the court is dismayed, spinning wheels are banned, etc.
Sixteen years pass and the lovely Princess Aurora appears to dance at her birthday party and society debut. One of my favorite classical ballet sequences is the Rose Adagio - which includes long, difficult balances, yet in her dancing the ballerina must be the living embodiment of each fairy’s bestowed charm (though we don’t remember there being a Fairy of Intense Concentration and Athletic Ability). Carabosse appears to fulfill her curse and Aurora’s suitors are, of course, useless as they blunder after the evil fairy with their swords drawn.
After Aurora has been asleep for 100 years the cast is again dressed in the heighth of court fashion, emulating the Versailles-vogue of Louis XIV. The third and final act of the ballet is my favorite, as the court celebrates the wedding between Aurora and her prince with a series of short character vignettes; the fairies joyously reappear and the prince and princess dance a final lovely pas de deux. The court dances. The end.
PNB’s acquisition of Ronald Hynd for The Sleeping Beauty and its ability to clothe its stage, choreography and company in opulent, elaborate dressing is an advertisement in artistic opportunity and wealth. The ballet’s many solo roles and short character variations demands a deep and capable cast, so at any point you will see PNB’s entire professional division onstage - with five different ballerinas rotating through the difficult role of Aurora. “The Sleeping Beauty is perhaps the greatest technical challenge of any ballet in our repertory,” says Proud Papa Peter Boal; indeed it is a testament to the company’s depth of skill and talent. PNB’s next classical undertaking is a new production of George Balanchine’s Coppélia over the summer. Can’t wait.
Finally, for those who like knowing stuff, here are some additional Sleeping Beauty tidbits:
- Walt Disney’s version of the fairy tale gives mad props to Tchaikovsky's score from the ballet, adapting it to furnish the music for the film: “Once Upon a Dream,” etc. etc. One of the film’s spookiest scenes is Aurora’s bewitched ascent into the castle tower, brilliantly coupled with the music from the Puss in Boots pas de caractère in the ballet’s third act.
- The Seattle Public Library carries The Complete Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault, whose version of The Sleeping Beauty is widely recognized as the original basis for the story we know today. It’s easy enough to school yourself on the seminal versions of "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Puss in Boots": a character who shows up in the Shrek movies as well.
- We saw an excerpt from Donald Byrd’s The Sleeping Beauty Notebook last fall at Spectrum Dance Theater’s Byrd Retrospective. The New York Times reviews the piece in its entirety. We’ll be on the lookout for any plans by Byrd to show the complete piece here in Seattle.
- Word on the street is that Tim Burton is considering making a Sleeping Beauty spinoff film from the perspective of Maleficent. Make it good, Mr. Burton!
Through Februrary 14th // McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street // $25 - $160
