Editorial Review:Product Description:'Beauty is a kiss of life...nothing short of a masterpiece...a visually and artistically memorable experience...this Sleeping Beauty could hardly be topped.' The Sun
This ballet is the magical tale of the beautiful Princess Aurora, condemned to sleep for one hundred years under a spell from the wicked Fairy Carabosse. She is awakened by a kiss from Prince Florimund, and there follows a joyous wedding celebration.
Featuring: Christine Walsh, David Ashmole, Joanne Michel, Andrea Toy, Terese Power, Paul De Masson, Paul Hamilton, Mary Duchesne, Ken Whitmore
Director: Maina Gielgud
Music: Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky
Original Choreography: Marius Petipa
Reproduced by: Monica Parker from the Nicholas Sergeyev notation
Additional Choreography: Maina Gielgud
Décor and Costumes: Hugh Colman
Lighting: William Akers
Guest Conductor: Barry Wordsworth with The Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
A Common man's point of view.
It was this ballet by the Australian Ballet the got me started so late in life (77) in a love affair with this beautiful art form. For me, this is next to the best performance of The Sleeping Beauty available. I have six copies so far, and may get more. If you are like me and just getting started on your collection, you need this information in order to avoid buying copies you won't like. I am certainly not an expert on ballet, I only know what I think is beautiful, and that is ALL that matters. Whether a dancer is technically perfect does NOT matter to me, only that he or she is beautiful and graceful, and acts his or her part well.
Christine Walsh is a beautiful Princess Aurora. She is young enough to pull off her role as a sixteen year old girl, though she may be twice that age. Her partner David Ashmole is a very handsome and capable Prince Florimund. Joanne Mitchel is beautiful in the role of The Lilac Fairy, and Andrea Toy was a wonderfully mean looking Carabosse, with her equally mean looking bird like minions who transported her to the palace. Her little monsters are the best of any ballet I have, and they were very good actors, as they tried to scare and intimidate everyone at the palace.
Christine's balance in her Rose Adagio (IMO the most famous dance in all of ballet) was very good. Though she lowered her extended leg a little in her last hand exchange with her suitor, she was able to get her arms into the fifth position w/o losing her balance. And her Sidney audience loved it. In one of the ballets I have, the Ballerina was not able to hold her extended leg, and she had to bring it down where she stood en pointe for part of the hand exchange and extended her leg again for the turn. It happened to be Maryse Egasse when she performed with Fernando Bujones in Santiago, Chile.Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty - Ballet del Teatro Municipal
Christine also does a superb acting job in her finger pricking episode as she extends her arms over her head it's very believable that she could have jabbed her other hand with the spinning needle. She made it look like she was in real pain, as her father and mother comfort her. When she starts her loss of control pirouettes, and is confronted by Carabosse, whom she has never seen before, she shows extreme shock and fear at her appearance, before feinting. It is at this point in the ballet that most ballet companies go wrong, and that is, they take Aurora off stage. This ballet is about a young girl who is poisoned by a spinning needle, and she, with all family and friends, is to be put to sleep for a hundred years. She should be laid on a lounge of some type right on stage with all her retinue with her, so the audience can see her, and if they wish, to cry for her. She should wake up one hundred years later in that same place, dressed in the same clothes, with her family and friends. The Het National Ballet of Amsterdam shows it can be done very simply in their version of "Beauty", which is the best version IMO. Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty / Sylve, Lambiotte, Florio, Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam
In the second act where Aurora appears as a vision she is dressed in a filmy gown which is more ethereal and otherworldly than a tutu as is used in many "Beauties". This change of costume seems acceptable since, after all, she IS a phantom.
The third act is magnificent, to say the least. The very best Puss in Boots and White Cat of them all. White Cat is a Persian Cat, and you'll understand why I say that after you see her. This Blue Bird and Princess Florine are exceptional and better than most. The PDD and variations by Aurora and Florimund are just spectacular.
I highly recommend this Australian ballet version of The Sleeping Beauty, which has in it's corps the up and coming sensation of Coppelia, Lisa Pavane (she's the fairy in the brown tutu), and Greg Horsman (could not identify him), another ballet by the ABC that I think you will love.The Australian Ballet - Coppelia It's available for close to $11.00 from one of Amazon's dealers. I've watched Coppelia many many times.
P.S. I had to edit my review because the price of Coppelia went up slightly, but it is still a fantastic bargain for such a wonderful ballet.
Rating: -
Another Sleeping Beauty for ballet fans to add to their collection-
This talented ballet company reminds me of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet: has a very good reputation, you hear about them now & then, but there's not much in the way of videos to check them out. Judging by this production from the '80s, this Melbourne ensemble, led by (at the time) company director/choreographer Maina Gielgud (Royal Danish Ballet, Boston & Houston Ballets) and former prima ballerina Christine Walsh, deserve a wider audience and additional recordings.
Walsh has incredibly tough competition from the others dancing Aurora on video, but while she's no Asylmuratova or Dupont or Cojocaru, she more than holds her own. She wobbles a bit in the Rose adagio, and one of her hand-offs with a cavalier is shaky, but while my dancer friend let this blemish disrupt some of her enjoyment of the DVD as a whole, I hope others don't let little imperfections spoil an otherwise beautiful production. Joanne Michel is fine as the Lilac Fairy. Sets and costumes are gorgeous and appropriately colorful for Perrault's fairy tale. While not as outstanding as the Royal Ballet release with Cojocaru & Nunez, this is very worthwhile and highly recommended. Like the versions of the Dutch National Ballet, the Paris Opera, the Kirov and this summer's ROB/Cojocaru offering, this is one to replay every now & then.
