Russian National Ballet’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ on stage Jan. 27 at Saint Mary’s University
WINONA, Minn. — The classic fairytale “Sleeping Beauty,” a full-length ballet in three acts, will be performed by the Russian National Ballet Theatre Tuesday, Jan. 27, at Saint Mary’s University’s Page Theatre.
“Sleeping Beauty,” a crowning jewel of choreographer Marius Petipa’s career, is often considered the finest achievement of classical ballet. Good will triumph over evil beginning at 7:30 p.m. Audiences will enjoy a lavish theatrical set, complete with magical effects and courtly splendor.
Pyotr IIyich Tchiakovsky was delighted with the invitation to write the music for a ballet based on Charles Perrault's well-known fairytale. A baby princess, condemned at her christening by an evil fairy to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday, is saved by the gift of the good Lilac Fairy, who declares the princess will only sleep until awakened by the kiss of a prince. The fairytale, replete with a king and queen, fairies both good and evil, a beautiful princess and dream prince, lent itself perfectly to the full evening ballet that was Petipa's pride.
The Russian National Ballet Theatre, formerly known as the Soviet National Ballet, was founded in Moscow by graduates from the Russian Choreographic schools of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm in the transitional period of Perestroika in the late 1980s. This was a time when many of the great dancers and choreographers of the Soviet Union’s ballet institutions were exercising their new-found creative freedom by starting new, vibrant companies — dedicated not only to the timeless tradition of classical Russian Ballet but to invigorating this tradition as the Russians began to accept new developments in dance from around the world.
In 1994, the legendary Bolshoi principal dancer Sergei Radchenko was selected by Presidential decree to assume the first permanent artistic directorship of the company.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and students and are available at the SMU Box Office (507) 457-1715 or online at www.pagetheatre.org. Pre-show dinners are available at $20 for adults or $12 for youth.
