The Sleeping Beauty reopened the Royal Opera House after the war in February 1946 when the Company first took up residence in Covent Garden with Margot Fonteyn dancing the role of Princess Aurora.
Now, 70 years later, The Royal Ballet will be performing their signature piece from Wednesday 21 December 2016 until Tuesday 14 March 2017.
The 70th anniversary revival features several debuts with Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi and Iana Salenko as Princess Aurora with Alexander Campbell, Matthew Ball, Reece Clarke and James Hay debuting in the role of Prince Florimund.
The Sleeping Beauty has received many different productions, but now The Royal Ballet has returned to the inspiration of the original with Oliver Messel's magical, luminous designs.
Ballet lovers the world over can participate in the anniversary celebrations on Tuesday 28 February when the ballet with be transmitted to cinemas with Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov leading the cast.
CASTING
21 Dec / 29 Dec / 3 Jan Sarah Lamb, Vadim Muntagirov
23 Dec (mat)/ 16 Feb Akane Takada, James Hay*
23 Dec/ 30 Dec Yuhui Choe, Ryoichi Hirano
15 Feb / 23 Feb / 28 Feb Marianela Nuñez, Vadim Muntagirov
16 Feb (mat) / 20 Feb Francesca Hayward*, Alexander Campbell*
18 Feb (mat) / 25 Feb (mat) Yasmine Naghdi*, Matthew Ball*
18 Feb / 22 Feb / 3 Mar Lauren Cuthbertson, Reece Clarke*
25 Feb / 1 Mar/ 4 Mar Natalia Osipova, Ryoichi Hirano
4 Mar (mat) / 7 Mar /14 Mar Iana Salenko*, Steven McRae
10 Mar / 13 Mar Hikaru Kobayashi, Federico Bonelli
- Role debut
Tickets £5- £130
Tel 0207 304 4000
www.roh.org.uk
Choreography Marius Petipa
Additional choreography Anthony Dowell, Frederick Ashton and Christopher Wheeldon
Production Monica Mason and Christopher Newton
Music Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Conductor Valery Ovsyanikov (21 December- 3 January, 3- 14
March) and Koen Kessels (15 February- 1 March)
Original designer Oliver Messel
Additional designs Peter Farmer
Lighting design Mark Jonathan
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
It will be fabulous.
Going!