The narrative ballet The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa, 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 Marcia 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, Marcia 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 National Theatre feels immensely honoured that Marcia Haydée has come to Prague to prepare in person the new production of her choreography with the Czech National Ballet dancers. Her visit was an exceptional cultural event, also serving as a prime example of tenacity and artistic involvement amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to having the opportunity to watch a recording of The Sleeping Beauty, you can look forward to seeing online an exclusive interview with Marcia Haydée, recorded during March 2021 in Prague.
The ballet based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale about a cursed sleeping kingdom has become truly topical. We have been waiting a whole year to receive its live premiere in front of an audience.
During the filming The State Opera Orchestra wasn´t able to play. The music was recorded by the Santiago de Chile Philharmonic Orchestra, to whom we extend our gratitude. We thank for the goodwill and cooperativeness they have shown at this fraught time.
The Czech premiere of Marcia Haydée’s The Sleeping Beauty will be streamed on the Czech National Ballet’s official YouTube channel, limited to seven days for free.
The recording of the performance at the State Opera of the classical narrative ballet will be available from Thursday 29 April 2021 at 7 pm.
This will be the Czech National Ballet’s contribution to the celebration marking International Dance Day 2021.
The universal struggle between Good and Evil
Before creating her own version of The Sleeping Beauty, Marcia 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 (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 Desiré, 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 ad negative energy. Their struggle is universal, one we can all relate to.” Her Carabosse, a tour de force role she created for the legendary dancer Richard Cragun, has never failed to fascinate audiences.
With Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, which received its world premiere on 3 January 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, ballet arrived at the end of the Romantic period and reached the climax of the Classical style. On its journey to audiences’ hearts, the masterpiece has become one of the pillars of the world’s cultural heritage. Today, in 2021, The Sleeping Beauty continues to serve as great inspiration, a true artistic gem of engrossing beauty.
Synopsis
After many years of childlessness, a daughter is born to the King and the Queen. The baptism celebrations are attended by six fairies, bringing good wishes. The master of ceremonies, Catalabutte, has forgotten to invite the fairy Carabosse. She appears and, offended and angry, curses the baby, predicting that on her sixteenth birthday Princess Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The consternation of all those present is ameliorated by the Lilac Fairy, who counters Carabosse’s malediction: after pricking her finger, Aurora will not die but fall into a hundred-year sleep, from which she will be awakened by a kiss of true love.
The curse comes true. Nevertheless, a century later, Prince Desiré has a vision. In a dream, the Lilac Fairy shows him Aurora and leads the young man to the sleeping Princess. Enchanted by her charm, Desiré awakens Aurora with a kiss. Love is the most powerful force against Carabosse’s malevolence.
The wedding of Aurora and Desiré is celebrated as a lavish masked party, with every member of the court disguised as a fairy-tale character. The Lilac Fairy blesses the union of the two young lovers. Yet Carabosse watches them from a distance … Good and Evil continue to be a part of life.
Marcia Haydée (b. 1937)
One of the most celebrated prima ballerinas of the second half of the 20th century, Marcia Haydée has also attained recognition as a choreographer and ballet director. An immensely charismatic figure, she has inspired a number of renowned choreographers and served as a model for dancers, while also influencing the development and form of classical ballet.
Born in Brazil, Marcia Haydée studied with several masters, including the Czech dancer Václav Vlček. At the age of 15, she moved to Europe, where she attended the Royal Ballet School in London, before becoming a member of Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, with which she stayed for four years. In 1961, she joined the Stuttgarter Ballett, where she was named a prima ballerina. The Muse of the company’s director John Cranko, she participated in the creation of the “Stuttgart Ballet Miracle”. The legendary choreographer assigned to Marcia lead roles in virtually all the repertoire works, including Romeo and Juliet, Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew and Carmen. Other roles were created for her by Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, Maurice Béjart, Glen Tetley, Jiří Kylián and other distinguished choreographers. A truly mesmerising dancer and convincing actor, Marcia Haydée performed with companies all over the world, alongside such towering ballet figures as Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jorge Donn and Richard Cragun, who was also her partner beyond the stage. Between 1976 and 1996, she was the artistic director of the Stuttgarter Ballett. In the second half of the 1990s she also helmed Chile’s Ballet de Santiago, the post of whose director she held again from 2003 to the end of 2020. Currently living in Germany with her husband Günther Schöberle, a yoga teacher, Marcia Haydée regularly travels around the world to stage her choreographies. She became a choreographer in 1987, when she conceived for the Stuttgarter Ballett an original adaptation of the classical fairy-tale ballet The Sleeping Beauty, which now, following triumphs in Australia, Belgium, Chile, Germany, South Korea and Sweden, has entered the Czech National Ballet’s repertoire. Other acclaimed choreographies of hers include The Firebird, Enas and Giselle and the Willis. Marcia Haydée has garnered a number of accolades, with the most prestigious being the German Dance Prize, the Vaslav Nijinsky Award, the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural and the Prix de Lausanne – Lifetime Achievement Award.
International Dance Day has been celebrated worldwide since 1982, on 29 April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810), a great ballet reformer, dubbed by his contemporaries the “Shakespeare of Dance”.
This year too, we will celebrate dance as a universal, enormously diverse art form. The day strives to encourage participation and education in dance. The day is a celebration for those who can see the value and importance of the art form dance, and acts as a wake up call for governments, politicians and institutions which have not yet recognised its value to the people.
Our partner PRECIOSA adorns this production with jewellery.
The Sleeping Beauty
Choreography: Marcia Haydée, after Marius Petipa
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Sets and costumes: Pablo Núñez
Master electrician: Jan Dörner
Choreologist: Pablo Aháronian
Staged by: Filip Barankiewicz
Ballet masters: Alexey Afanasiev, Michaela Černá, Jiří Kodym, Barbora Kohoutková, Tereza Podařilová
Music recording: Santiago de Chile Philharmonic Orchestra
Performed by Czech National Ballet soloists and Corps de ballet, Prague Dance Conservatory students, National Theatre Ballet Preparatory School pupils and extras.
