Pjotr Tjajkovskij

The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66

Tchaikovsky was at work on his Fifth Symphony when, in May 1888, the idea of composing music for The Sleeping Beauty as a ballet-spectacle was proposed to him by Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theatres at St Petersburg. It was more than 10 years since Swan Lake was produced at Moscow with only partial success, but when Tchaikovsky read the outline Vsevolozhsky sketched out he replied that he was ‘enchanted’ by the idea and added: ‘I could not want anything better than to write the music for it’.

This time Vsevolozhsky arranged from the outset a collaboration with Marius Petipa, the French-born choreographer, then aged 70, who had been the St Petersburg ballet-master for 26 years and whose 42 original ballets raised the art to a new level of splendour and style. Petipa wrote a detailed breakdown of each planned episode and dance, and sent this to Tchaikovsky with his own thoughts for suitable music; he later commented that his problems were eased ‘when one collaborates with a composer of genius like Tchaikovsky’. Petipa’s manuscript in black ink, with red ink for the musical suggestions, is preserved in Moscow’s Bakrushin Museum, and Tchaikovsky found this helpful enough to sketch the entire score in some 40 working days, though the orchestration proved more difficult. He kept quite close to Petipa’s ideas, and modified them only when he thought the musical interest required it. A few changes were made during rehearsals, including the dropping of an entr’acte (almost a mini-concerto intended for Leopold Auer, a celebrated violinist) because it delayed the last Act too much.

The ballet’s underlying conflict of good and evil is set out in the orchestral Introduction, with the angry theme of Carabosse, the wicked fairy, overcome by the graceful tune of the benevolent Lilac Fairy. The Prologue and three Acts follow a conscious musical as well as choreographic design, each having narrative music to begin and end them, enclosing dances that also carry the story forward, but these in turn surrounding central divertissements. Throughout the ballet Princess Aurora is associated with waltz-rhythms, and often with a solo violin. These solos, and others for cello, flute, oboe and clarinet, in particular, demand playing of concerto standard. Just a few highlights that abound in the score include six-part violins for the entry of the Prologue Fairies, the Rose Adagio in 12/8 time as the first part of a linked sequence of dances in the Birthday scene, the same melody in the Vision scene played at different speeds to show contrasting aspects of Aurora, or the rhythmic subtlety of the Panorama music that precedes the Awakening.

Although there were criticisms after the St Petersburg premiere on 15 January 1890 that the music was ‘too symphonic’, the ballet was successful enough to be given on 21 of the 45 ballet nights that first season. Carlotta Brianza was the first Aurora, with Pavel Gerdt the Prince, Petipa’s daughter Marie the Lilac Fairy, and Enrico Cecchetti, who later became a great teacher in London, doubling Carabosse and the Bluebird.

Outside Russia, The Sleeping Beauty was first awoken in the West when Sergey Diaghilev staged his lavish production by the Ballets Russes at London’s Alhambra Theatre in 1921, prompting Stravinsky to declare then that the music is ‘the most convincing example of Tchaikovsky’s great creative power’. The ballet has been a foundation-work of The Royal Ballet and its classical style since 1946, when it reopened the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, after the war, with Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann (who doubled the Prince and Carabosse); it also launched the company’s international reputation on their first visit to New York in 1949.

Noël Goodwin 1990

The story of The Sleeping Beauty

Prologue: The Christening

King Florestan and his Queen have invited all the Fairies to be present as Godmothers at the christening of the infant Princess Aurora. Unfortunately, the Fairy Carabosse has been forgotten, for she has not been seen for a long time. But nevertheless she arrives, vastly insulted, just as the other Fairies are bestowing their magic gifts; she gives a spindle by way of a christening present, and then announces that one day Aurora shall prick her finger with it and die. Happily, the Lilac Fairy still has her own gift to bestow, and she confounds Carabosse by promising that Aurora shall not die, but shall instead fall into a deep sleep, from which she shall be awakened after a hundred years by a Prince’s kiss.

ACT I: The Spell

It is Princess Aurora’s 20th birthday, and four Princes have come to woo her. During the festivities a strange woman approaches and shows her something which she has never seen before – a spindle. In examining it she pricks her finger. At her cry the suitors rush to her aid. The old woman throws back her cloak, revealing that she is Carabosse, and vanishes. Now the Lilac Fairy appears to fulfil her promise. She casts a spell of sleep over the whole scene and commands a forest to grow up that shall utterly conceal the palace.

ACT II: The Vision

A hundred years later the young Prince Florimund is hunting in this same forest with some of his court. When a stag is sighted, the Prince’s companions join the chase, but Florimund remains behind, dreaming of an ideal love. The Lilac Fairy appears and shows him a vision of Aurora, and next summons the vision to dance with Florimund. He implores the Lilac Fairy to lead him to where Aurora sleeps, and the Lilac Fairy takes him on a journey to the overgrown and wooded palace where Aurora lies. They encounter Carabosse outside the palace gates and the Lilac Fairy banishes her from the kingdom. Florimund finds the Sleeping Beauty and wakens her with a kiss and the magic spell is broken.

ACT III: The Wedding

Fairy-tale characters come to the wedding celebrations of the Prince and Aurora. They pay their respects to the bride and bridegroom, and then the whole assembly joins in a general dance. In a final apotheosis, the Lilac Fairy appears to bless the marriage.

Clement Crisp

Prologue

No. 1 Introduction

No. 2 Marche

No. 3 Scène dansante

No. 4a Pas de six: Introduction
No. 4b Adagio
No. 4c Variation I Candide
No. 4d Variation II Coulante – Fleur de farine
No. 4eVariation III Miettes qui tombent
No. 4f Variation IV Canari qui chante
No. 4g Variation V Violente
No. 4h Variation VI La fée des lilas
No. 4i Coda

No. 5 Finale

Act I

No. 6 Scène

No. 7 Valse

No. 8 Scène

No. 9a Pas d’action. Rose Adagio
No. 9b Danse des demoiselles d’honneur et des pages
No. 9c Variation d’Aurore
No. 9d Coda
No. 10 Finale

Act II

No. 11 Entr’acte et scène

No. 12 Colin-maillard

No. 13a Scène
No. 13b Danse des duchesses
No. 13c Danse des baronnes
No. 13d Danse des contesses
No. 13e Danse des marquises

No. 14a Farandole. Scène
No. 14b Danse (Mazurka)

No. 15 Scène (Désiré et la Fée des Lilas)

No. 16a Pas d’action (Scène d’Aurore et de Désiré)
No. 16b Variation d’Aurore
No. 16c Coda

No. 17 Scène

No. 18 Panorama

No. 19 Entr’acte

No. 20 Entr’acte symphonique (le sommeil) et scène

No. 21 Finale

Act III

No. 22 Marche

No. 23 Polacca

No. 24a Pas de quatre
No. 24bLa fée-or
No. 24c La fée-argent
No. 24d La fée-saphir
No. 24e La fée-diamant
No. 24f Coda

No. 25 Pas de caractère (Le chat botté et la chatte blanche)

No. 26a Pas de quatre
No. 26b Cendrillon et le Prince Fortuné
No. 26c L’Oiseau-bleu et la Princesse Florine
No. 26d Coda

No. 27a Pas de caractère (Chaperon rouge et le loup)
No. 27b Cendrillon et le Prince Fortuné

No. 28a Pas Berrichon
No. 28b Coda

No. 29a Pas de deux
No. 29b Entrée
No. 29c Adagio
No. 29d Désiré
No. 29e Aurore
No. 29f Coda

No. 30 Sarabande

No. 31 Finale

No. 32 Apothéose