THE SLEEPING BEAUTY at Covent Garden - Wakey Wakey!

I think we were very brave returning to Covent Garden as our last visit to The Royal Ballet saw us witness the heartbreak of Steven McRae injured mid-performance during MANON.  Happily  I can report that we counted all the dancers onto the stage and we counted them all off safely.  More importantly, it was a real pleasure to see THE SLEEPING BEAUTY again, still a jewel in the RB's crown.

It has been around for such a long time that quite a few names can claim some ownership of it.  Originally created in 1890 by legendary Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, his original Imperial Ballet production 'bible's were smuggled out of Bolshevik Russia by Nicholas Sergeyev who staged his own production at Sadler's Wells in 1939.

In 1947 Ninette De Valois' Sadler's Wells Ballet company were given the honour of becoming the permanent dance company at Covent Garden - which had been a dance hall during WWII! - and she decided that, to match the building coming back to life, her first production would be Petipa's THE SLEEPING BEAUTY with picture-book designs by Oliver Messel.

De Valois' production stayed in the repertoire for over 20 years then several new productions replaced it until the Dame's was brought back, redirected by then-Royal Ballet Director Monica Mason with Christopher Newton, in 2006 to celebrate the Royal Ballet's 75th Anniversary and it has stayed ever since; however it has since interpolated certain choreographed contributions from Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon.

As I said it is still going strong - we saw it's 910th performance - but again I find it strange to be seeing a production that is relatively the same as has been done for years; no matter how acclaimed a theatre production, they are rarely revived after more than a year.  It would be nice if someone could look at the tired 'pantomime' actions between the dances; it does rather turn into dance for the deaf with the gesticulations for beauty, sleep etc.

As I said Steven McCrea was injured during the run of MANON so Prince Florimund was danced by Reece Clarke and Akane Takada was off too so Aurora was danced by Fumi Kaneko who really rose to her challenge of the famous Rose Adagio, a dazzling display of movement, balance and stillness as Aurora dances with four visiting princes.

There was fine support from the marvellous Itziar Mendizabal dancing the role of The Lilac Fairy exquisitely, Christine Arestis was very boo-able as the Wicked Fairy Carabosse, and a special mention for James Hay as the always leaping and spinning Bluebird in the finale.  Tchaikovsky's remarkable music sounded lustrous under the baton of Simon Hewitt.

I had been in two minds about seeing THE SLEEPING BEAUTY when it was obvious that Steven McRae would not be dancing but I am glad I did - the many artists who worked down the years to make it created a legendary classic.