The Sleeping Beauty (Nureyev)
Marius Petipa’s 1890 adaptation of Charles Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty was a ballet especially close to Nureyev’s heart. An avid reader with a particular fondness for fairytales, he had dreamed of performing The Sleeping Beauty since he was a little boy in Ufa. The Sleeping Beauty was a core part of the Kirov’s repertoire and, having joined the company, the Prince quickly became one of Nureyev’s favourite roles. His bravura technique and the wild, sensuous grace he brought to the characterisation delighted audiences and provided him with one of his first major successes. After his defection in 1961, The Sleeping Beauty was the first full ballet he performed in the West, with Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.
Over the years, Nureyev was to stage several versions of The Sleeping Beauty around the world. His first production was for the Scala Opera Ballet in 1966, with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis. On the opening night in Milan, he danced the role of the Prince with Carla Fracci as Aurora. Petipa’s original choreography offered the Prince very few opportunities to dance. To remedy this, Nureyev created a new solo for the Prince in the Hunting Scene in Act II. He also repurposed Tchaikovsky’s original music for the entr’acte, turning it into a marathon five-minute solo for the Prince. Nureyev danced this solo as an extract on a PBS Gala of Stars television special in 1982, accompanied by violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
Audiences loved it, but many critics felt that certain aspects of Nureyev’s choreography had overcomplicated an already lengthy and ornate ballet. The lightning-quick flutters of Bournonville-inspiredfootwork, which figured so often in Nureyev’s work, were seen as fussy and distracting.
In 1972, Nureyev staged The Sleeping Beauty for the National Ballet of Canada, dancing the opening night alongside Veronica Tennant. A television broadcast of the ballet in December of the same yearreached an audience of more than 30 million. At later performances, Nureyev would dance with the young Karen Kain, who became one of his favourite partners. Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty put the young company on the world stage, launching an unprecedented era of international touring and acclaim.
Nureyev went on to stage The Sleeping Beauty with the London Festival Ballet in 1975 and with the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1980, dancing the Prince at both opening nights. The ballet was first staged at the Paris Opéra in 1989, when Nureyev was director of the company. The opening night had been planned to coincide with Nureyev’s 51st birthday, on 17 March, but a strike meant it was postponed by oneday. The first performance was a matinée, starring Elisabeth Maurin and Yves-Jean Lormeau, with Elisabeth Platel and Manuel Legris leading the cast in the evening show. On 29 February 1992, Nureyev appeared as Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty with the Berlin State Opera Ballet. It marked the last time that he performed in one of his own choreographies.
After his death, the Scala Opera Ballet restaged Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty, this time with designs by Franca Squarciapino, in 1994. The Finnish National Ballet presented the ballet under the title Princessa Ruusunen in 1999, with sets by Anneli Qveflander and costumes by Erika Turunen.
Nureyev’s production of The Sleeping Beauty remains in the repertoire of ballet companies around the world today.
Speaking about The Sleeping Beauty in 1989, Rudolf Nureyev said:
‘When I was first learning to dance in Ufa, my ballet master, who had belonged to the Kirov ballet, used to tell me that Sleeping Beauty was the “ballet of ballets”. And I couldn’t wait to try it. It was with the Kirov ballet that I later discovered what a glorious delight it was.
Sleeping beauty by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa, in fact, represents the pinnacle of classical ballet: ballet then proved itself as one of the major arts. This constitutes a historical event: after Sleeping Beauty, ballet could attract the greatest composers who did not hesitate when it came to working with the choreographers.
I think that each dancer should pray every morning to three icons: Tchaikovsky – God the father, Prokoviev – the Son, and Stravinsky – the Holy Spirit. It is these three musicians who produced the most important and most daring of works in the repertoire of ballet.
Today, Sleeping Beauty is still for me the perfect accomplishment of symphonic ballet. The choreographer is required to find harmony with Tchaikovsky’s score. It is not a question of creating an event with no future with Sleeping Beauty, but of producing a lasting show that supports the excellence of a company.’