The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty returns – also in cinemas
This season, The Royal Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty returns to the Royal Opera House, from Monday 16 January until Tuesday 6 June 2023.
The ballet was first presented at Covent Garden in 1946 after the post-war re-opening of the Royal Opera House with Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora, Robert Helpmann as Prince Florimund and Beryl Grey as the Lilac Fairy.
Marius Petipa‘s three-act ballet was fully restored to the company’s repertory by Monica Mason and Christopher Newton in 2006, using the original designs by Oliver Messel, now with additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell, and Christopher Wheeldon.
The production will be broadcast live to cinemas on Wednesday 24 May 2023 at 7:15pm, with Yasmine Naghdi as Aurora and Matthew Ball as Florimund. Encore performances will follow.
The Sleeping Beauty – photo album
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
