Is love more powerful than evil and can it prevail? The Sleeping Beauty attempts to answer the thorny question…
The narrative ballet The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa, based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale, was first performed in 1890 in St Petersburg. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Now its adaptation as crafted by the legendary prima ballerina Márcia Haydée is set to become part of the Czech National Ballet’s repertoire, as a remarkable artefact of the classical ballet spiritual legacy.
Since its premiere in 1987 designed by world famous Jürgen Rose, Márcia Haydée’s The Sleeping Beauty has been performed with different stage designs to great acclaim in Australia, Belgium, Chile, Germany, South Korea and Sweden. This original version of the sets and costumes for The Czech National Ballet was designed by Prague-born Pablo Núñez. The recently refurbished State Opera in Prague will host the balletic parable of bringing beauty back to life, and the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.
The universal struggle between Good and Evil
Before creating her own version of The Sleeping Beauty, Márcia Haydée had encountered Marius Petipa’s classical choreography on numerous occasions: it was the very first ballet she, as a little girl, saw, and, later on, as a dancer, she would appear in a number of its versions. When, in 1961, Marcia auditioned for John Cranko, she danced variations from The Sleeping Beauty, and she made her debut with the company performing Princess Florine Florine (a Bluebird pas de deux). Her profound knowledge of the work thus afforded Marcia a solid foundation on which she would later on build her own interpretation of The Sleeping Beauty, the very first ballet she choreographed.
Besides Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré, she primarily foregrounds the character of Carabosse, who is constantly present throughout the ballet. Haydée continues to focus on the wicked fairy until the very end, when Carabosse appears at the wedding feast so as to remind us that Evil is a constant part of the world and will not go away. Marcia Haydée described her vision as follows: “For me, The Sleeping Beauty is the story of Carabosse. … I think we all carry within aspects of both positive and negative energy. Their struggle is universal, one we can all relate to.”
