The Bay Head School

of Ballet & Violin

Presents

Scenes from “The

Sleeping Beauty”

Saturday, March 5, 2016 

Program

The Sleeping Beauty.  A ballet in three acts, with a prologue.  Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  Choreography by Marius Petipa.  Libretto by Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozhsky, from a story by Charles Perrault.  This ballet was first performed at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg on January 16, 1890.   

Prologue: The Christening.  King Floristan 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.  But nevertheless she arrives, vastly insulted, just as the other Fairies are bestowing their magic gifts; she gives a spindle as 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 16th 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.  The Lilac Fairy casts a spell of sleep over the whole scene and commands a forest to grow up to 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.  Florimund remains behind, dreaming of an ideal love.  The Lilac Fairy appears and shows him a vision of Aurora, and 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 celebration of the Prince and Aurora.  They pay their respects to the bride and bridegroom.  The Lilac Fairy appears to bless the marriage.