Product Description

The second of Tchaikovsky three ballets, The Sleeping Beauty is widely regarded as the composer's finest ballet score. The Royal Ballet's full-length production of The Sleeping Beauty was first performed in 1946 and was a triumphant success. This version is a revival of that same production, created to mark the Company's 75th anniversary in 2006.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7066 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-30
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Classical, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL, Surround Sound
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 174 minutes

Synopsis
The Royal Ballet's sumptuous production of Tchaikovsky's THE SLEEPING BEAUTY was created to mark the 75th anniversary of the company in 2006. With choreography by Marius Petipa, and Valeriy Ovsyanikov conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Review
Alina Cojocaru's Aurora was the ballet's radiant centrepiece, charming, in control and filled with a palpable delight in every pretty step. --Times Online

Customer Reviews

Stunning!
This "Sleeping Beauty" is beautiful. The costumes are lavish and beautiful and the sets wistful, romantic, and straight out of a fairy tale.

The dancing, all around, is amazing, and Alina Cojocaru is wonderful as Aurora. Her dancing is light, beautiful and graceful. She makes a youthful, sweet, smiling, tender princess - a princess on the inside as well as on the outside. Even on the hard moments like the Rose Adagio, she remains with us - gentle, warm, and accessible. Her Aurora is really moving and heart-warming. During the Rose Adagio, she makes her balances perfectly. I understand that it's an awful, insane moment and it's so hard to get those balances perfect, but Alina handles them so beautifully, and her balances are quite steady. She is at rest performing them, too; there seems to be nothing strained in the moment for her. Federico Bonelli is also a fantastic prince, and his dancing is beautiful. Marianela Nuñez is lovely as the Lilac Fairy, and Genesia Rosato makes an evil, cackling Carabosse. She obviously really relished playing the role. The other fairies were also all amazing in their Act One variations, and the dances of Act Three were also beautiful. Sarah Lamb was especially great in the Bluebird variation.

The only other thing I'll mention is that Opus Arte made a mistake in the programme leaflet inside the DVD. The man partnering Sarah Lamb as the Bluebird in Act Three is not Jose Martin, as the leaflet states. It is Yohei Sasaki. The people writing that programme got the name wrong on their cast list, though I don't know why. Yohei Sasaki is still credited at the end of the DVD itself, when the credits roll up over the screen.

Anyway, this is a wonderful performance. I recommend it. :)

enchanting
Already having the Paris ballet version I just had to buy this and it appears to have been a wise choice,I for one do not really like comparing dancers as all have their own style.In this the ROH version we have Alina Cojocaru who is a small delicate dancer with a balance that defies gravity (almost anyway) and a beautiful smile to melt the hardest of hearts.Frederico Bonelli takes his part along side her and dances to such a standard as to make the pairing sublime.
But to add to the star list we have Marianela Nunez also giving a prize winning performance,as did Sarah Lamb.
As for the evil Carabosse, Genasia Rosato was an inspired choice winning a lot of good natured booing at the end.
As usual the music was played exceptionally well by the ROH orchestra under the baton of Valeriy Ovsyanikov (try saying that after a few pints).
Every body knows this story so I'll not need to go into it,but the costumes were beautiful(as were the dancers),stage settings were good (as opposed to great),all in all a perfect evenings viewing. I enjoyed the mime (of which there is quite a lot)!
There are no real downsides as such,worthy of mention.
Now the million dollar question,which should you buy? well there is no easy answer to that-this done in London is good, very good! as is the Paris Ballets version starring Aurelie Dupont/Manuel Legris,so if I could only buy one it would (in this instance) be the Paris Ballets version...As usual I must add though that there are many many others to pick from and it is down to personal choice at the end of the day-So I do recommend this to add to your collection as I'm sure you will love it....

Superb!
This DVD SO saved me an air trip to London! A beautiful production and the transaction was spot-on as always. Thank you Amazon.