The initiator of the fateful meeting between Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa was the director of the Imperial Theaters, Ivan Vsevolozhsky. His idea was to stage a ballet based on a French fairy tale, he wrote the libretto, invented costumes of incredible beauty and became a co-author of a miracle born by the genius of two great masters.
"Sleeping Beauty" turned out to be quite traditional and completely new. Her music, like other ballet scores of the second half of the 19th century, was written according to a clear plan of the choreographer, indicating the number of measures and the nature of the sound. But the fulfillment of the order did not limit Tchaikovsky's music to the expected dansantism. The ballet sounded like a full-blooded figurative symphony. Its melodic richness could not but inspire great achievements. Tchaikovsky's composition inspired Petipa not to revolutionary changes, the choreographer heard harmony in it. And his "Sleeping Woman" did not become a search for new ways, but in an ideal design collected everything created by the choreographer's many years of work on the St. Petersburg stage. The dance harmony of the performance was determined by the balanced proportions of ingredients - pantomime, genre spectacular scenes and classical dance forms, built in the impeccable logic of the development of the choreographic action from the ensemble to the ballerina's solo performance. The model of the big ballet, familiar in its individual elements and innovative in its impeccable composition, became the crowning achievement of the ballet art of the 19th century. And at the same time, it was The Sleeping Beauty that launched the ballet discoveries of the 20th century. Fascinated by the masterpiece of Tchaikovsky, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky, Alexander Benois, and after him the most advanced ballet creators of the next artistic formation, composed in the spirit of past eras and distant cultures. The captivating atmosphere of Louis XIV France, recreated in The Sleeper, paved the way for the modernist stylizations of the World of Art. familiar in its individual elements and innovative in its impeccable composition, became the crowning achievement of the ballet art of the 19th century. And at the same time, it was The Sleeping Beauty that launched the ballet discoveries of the 20th century. Fascinated by the masterpiece of Tchaikovsky, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky, Alexander Benois, and after him the most advanced ballet creators of the next artistic formation, composed in the spirit of past eras and distant cultures. The captivating atmosphere of Louis XIV France, recreated in The Sleeper, paved the way for the modernist stylizations of the World of Art. familiar in its individual elements and innovative in its impeccable composition, became the crowning achievement of the ballet art of the 19th century. And at the same time, it was The Sleeping Beauty that launched the ballet discoveries of the 20th century. Fascinated by the masterpiece of Tchaikovsky, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky, Alexander Benois, and after him the most advanced ballet creators of the next artistic formation, composed in the spirit of past eras and distant cultures. The captivating atmosphere of Louis XIV France, recreated in The Sleeper, paved the way for the modernist stylizations of the World of Art. and after him, the most advanced creators of ballets of the next artistic formation composed in the spirit of past eras and distant cultures. The captivating atmosphere of Louis XIV France, recreated in The Sleeper, paved the way for the modernist stylizations of the World of Art. and after him, the most advanced creators of ballets of the next artistic formation composed in the spirit of past eras and distant cultures. The captivating atmosphere of Louis XIV France, recreated in The Sleeper, paved the way for the modernist stylizations of the World of Art.
Olga Makarova
