See the Authentic Sleeping Beauty in St. Petersburg
Or see how the ballet was transformed in a virtual exhibition. March 5, 2021 Sleeping Beauty Natasha Razina for the State Academic Mariinsky Theater
At the end of the 19th century, the director of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, had an idea for a ballet based on a tale by Charles Perrault called “La Belle au bois dormant.” Vsevolozhsky wrote the scenario and sketched the costumes for the ballet, which would be called “Sleeping Beauty,” and asked Pyotr Tchaikovsky to compose the score and Marius Petipa to choreograph it. The lush production of dance and pantomime premiered in January 1890 and became one of the Mariinsky Theater’s most popular ballets.