Boston Ballet Tells The Tale of The Sleeping Beauty

I have written about Boston Ballet and The Sleeping Beauty several times before. The last time Isabelle and I saw The Sleeping Beauty together she was a young teenager. This time, she is the age of awakening from the slumber of childhood into her adult life. Seeing the ballet, listening to the intoxicating live music, and taking in the beauty of the Opera House is a welcome escape from every day life. For adults it is a chance to slip back into the world of daydreams and fairy tales. For children, it is the opportunity to heighten them. It is a treat to witness the dancing. It is revitalizing to be swept into the fantasy of a fairy tale. Boston Ballet’s performances of Marius Pepita’s The Sleeping Beauty runs through Sunday June 7th. Tickets can be purchased here.

Most people are familiar with the fairy tale The Sleeping Beauty. Seeing the story told through ballet is a wonderful introduction to the ballet in general and Boston Ballet specifically. Knowing the story, helps you decipher the pantomime on stage, and easily follow the storyline.

Boston Ballet’s dancers are technicians that have the skills to impeccably dance some of the very challenging (due to speed, choreography, lifts) that The Sleeping Beauty is teeming with. They are also artists, performers, jesters (when the moment calls for laughs), and drama queens. They know how to knit it all together without dropping a stitch (or pricking a finger).

David Walker’s set is straight out of an illustrated fairy tale book. The costumes are intricate and full of little details as well as history. Did you know that costumes are often passed down from ballet company to ballet company generation after generation? These particular ones were masterfully designed and stitched in London in the 1970s by prominent theater designer David Walker.

Tchaikovsky’s music is rich and sets the tone so well for each of the scenes and characters in the ballet. Music carries and accentuates the wickedness and drama of the outraged Carrabosse who casts a spell on Aurora rises in full force with the music, the lighting and lightening, and the dramatic entrances and exits. The Sleeping Beauty does not lack drama or (unexpectedly) sass and humour.

Remaining shows for Boston Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty are:

Thursday, June 4 at 7:30 pm
Friday, June 5 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 6 at 1:30 and 7:30 pm
Sunday, June 7 at 1:30 pm

Tickets can be purchased here. Use code CITYLIVING45 for $45 tickets plus fees