The Stage

The Sleeping Beauty

Published Thursday 4 March 2010 at 14:30 by Richard Edmonds

When the prince is handsome and the princess is beautiful, we can sit back with a sigh of relief, since all our expectations are fulfilled.

And fulfilment is very much the case with Peter Wright’s magnificent Sleeping Beauty which, with its golden opulence, high, bright dancing and general air of grandeur has no equal in the ballet world today.

Clearly, Chi Cao (Prince Florimund) and Nao Sakuma (Princess Aurora) kindle the mind and touch the heart. Both dancers rise to the heights.

Dialogue in ballet is superfluous. Emotional rapture, grief, fury are all there in this detailed production conveyed by miming that is crystal clear.

Peter Wright insists upon an intense transmission of silent gesture. Thus when Marion Tait’s Carabosse is slighted at the royal Christening, her rage which spills like acid over the bewildered royal couple is chilling, and her portrayal is perfect.

Elegance of line (Yvette Knight’s icy and imperious Countess is marvellous) and the careful choreography, set down by Petipa a century ago, are clearly an intrinsic part of this wonderful evening integrated as they are with Wright’s additions. You find them in the great pas de deux, or in novelty dances when the bluebirds fly in - good work from Joseph Caley and Momoko Hirata.

They are there when Puss in Boots is sparring with the White Cat, and always when the dancers in their fabulous costumes, which evoke the court of Louis X1V, make the glamorous stage patterns which are both courtly and formal. It all ends happily ever after - the Lilac Fairy has triumphed and evil is vanquished.

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