One of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s three great ’white ballets‘ and a masterpiece that brought the imperial classical academic style to its most refined in the late 19th century, The Sleeping Beauty, will make its comeback to the ballet repertoire of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
After being appointed Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, a former diplomat and art collector, invited Tchaikovsky in 1888 to compose a ballet for the Mariinsky Theatre. Vsevolozhsky crafted the libretto alongside the eminent choreographer and reformer of classical ballet, Marius Petipa. Inspired by Charles Perrault’s fairy tale, they set the narrative during the reign of Louis XIV, drawing on the era’s music, costumes, stylistic features and mannerisms and, above all, on its classical principles of harmony, symmetry, and pure dance form.
Although his Moscow production of Swan Lake was unsuccessful, Tchaikovsky embraced the opportunity to work with Petipa. Marius Petipa’s customary approach involved commissioning musical compositions for dances tailored to the libretto, and Tchaikovsky adhered to this method without question to ultimately create a ballet symphony whose complexity reminded the astonished audiences of an opera. Since its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1890, The Sleeping Beauty has established itself as a cherished and timeless piece in the classical ballet canon, interpreted through countless choreographic lenses across the globe.
The Ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb first staged The Sleeping Beauty in 1950, choreographed by Oskar Harmoš after Marius Petipa. Subsequent productions of the ballet fairy tale followed in 1966, 1972, 1990 and 2006, based on Petipa’s original choreography and reimagined by Françoise Adret, Frano Jelinčić, Waczlaw Orlikowsky, and Derek Deane.
This season, the Zagreb audience will have the opportunity to enjoy The Sleeping Beauty reinterpreted by Paul Chalmer, Canadian dancer and choreographer, whose version was first performed at the Rome Opera Ballet in 2002 and was lauded for blending freshness with fidelity to tradition. Blending classical elegance with a modern sensibility, Chalmer remains faithful to the original fairy tale atmosphere and classical ballet’s aesthetic code while embracing Tchaikovsky’s music’s tempo, dynamism, and rhythm. This new version of The Sleeping Beauty guarantees to deliver viewers a magical journey through a classic ballet dream.
