San Francisco Ballet will perform Helgi Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty, a production that premiered in 1990. It is choreographed after Marius Petipa’s 1890 version, maintaining Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s timeless score. This epitome of classical ballet is set in Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, Jens-Jacob Worsaae‘s set and costume design reflecting this period in history.
Audiences will have the privilege of seeing professional dancers from one America’s most renowned ballet companies along with sixty students from San Francisco Ballet School, its training academy. In all, the cast will consist of 148 roles of which some of the most recognizable in the classical ballet vernacular will be seen: Princess Aurora, her Prince Desiré, Lilac Fairy, and The Fairy of Darkness (aka Carabosse). These principal characters are accompanied by the fairytale characters of Puss in Boots, The White Cat, The Enchanted Princess, and Bluebird, as well as plenty of fairies (of Tenderness, Generosity, Serenity, Playfulness, and Courage, to name a few) and nymphs.
The Sleeping Beauty will be at SF War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco from March 9-17, 2019; more details can be found here and casting for the performances will be available here. There are several complementary events that will also be held:
- February 23 @ 5:00pm – Ballet Talk about “Ballet, Kinesthetic Empathy, and Music Analysis in The Sleeping Beauty”
- March 16 @ 5:00pm – Ballet Book Club at Chris Hellman Center for Dance
- March 9. 10, 15, and 17 (pre-performance) – Meet the Artists one hour before curtain
- March 13 @ 6:00pm – Pointe of View lecture with dance educator Mary Wood at SF War Memorial Opera House
Source: San Francisco Ballet | Featured Photo © Erik Tomasson, Ellen Rose Hummel, Isabella DeVivo, and Jennifer Stahl in Helgi Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty