This season, The Royal Ballet’s signature production of The Sleeping Beauty returns to the Royal Opera House. First presented at Covent Garden in 1946 after the post-war re-opening of the Royal Opera House, this legendry production featured Margot Fonteyn as Princess Aurora, Robert Helpmann as Prince Florimund and Beryl Gray, who died earlier this month aged 95, 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, incorporating original designs by Oliver Messel and Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score. With additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon, this production includes an array of virtuoso sequences, including the Rose Adage, celebrated as one of the most testing challenges for a classical dancer.
This production opens on Monday 16 January 2023 and will also be broadcast live to cinemas on Wednesday 24 May 2023 at 7:15pm, with Yasmine Naghdi as Princess Aurora and Matthew Ball as Prince Florimund. An encore broadcast will be shown on Sunday 28 May 2023 at 2pm, and other encores around the world to follow.