NYT reports that ABT's 2015 Spring Season at the Metropolitan House will feature a new production of Sleeping Beauty with designs by Richard Hudson based on Leon Bakst's original designs for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The premiere will be at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa in March.
Here are a few pictures of Bakst's original designs from the Diaghilev Exhibition at Harvard.
The third picture, a gift to Harvard from a Koch brother, is interesting in that the costume apparently was designed for someone called the "Good Fairy" and Bakst put her in character shoes and a mask. The Harvard folks say on their site that the costume is similar to the Lilac Fairy sketch now owned by someone else, and that the Lilac Fairy wore a mask.
This new production sounds like the relief that we need – if we can get the right Auroras. And that's a big if.
Aurora:
Aurora
Good Fairy – similar to Lilac Fairy design drawing
More pictures from a Google search here.
8 responses to “New Ratmansky Sleeping Beauty for ABT”
I’m very excited and will certainly be there to report! I am hoping against all hope that with Ratmansky in charge the Auroras are who we hope for–the ballerinas he favors most at ABT. And finally, Segestrom gets out of the clutches of Ardani schlock for at least one, full-length run of real ballet. The designs (if they keep true to these pictures) should be gorgeous and will make a lot of other ABT productions look like tatters. Hope they get it right.
I’m very excited and will certainly be there to report! I am hoping against all hope that with Ratmansky in charge the Auroras are who we hope for–the ballerinas he favors most at ABT. And finally, Segestrom gets out of the clutches of Ardani schlock for at least one, full-length run of real ballet. The designs (if they keep true to these pictures) should be gorgeous and will make a lot of other ABT productions look like tatters. Hope they get it right.
Agree, K. Sleeping Beauty needs real classical ballerinas and danseurs nobles, not media hype-ster wannabes.
Look at the second picture above and tell me if you think Bakst penciled in nipples on Aurora. Wow, that would really make for an interesting costume.
Agree, K. Sleeping Beauty needs real classical ballerinas and danseurs nobles, not media hype-ster wannabes.
Look at the second picture above and tell me if you think Bakst penciled in nipples on Aurora. Wow, that would really make for an interesting costume.
Maybe they are just….uh blush coloring? To emphasize her newfound womanhood?
Or they are nipples. One of the two! Oh my.
Maybe they are just….uh blush coloring? To emphasize her newfound womanhood?
Or they are nipples. One of the two! Oh my.
I am already marking my calendars for this. Sleeping Beauty is a test for any company worth its name, simply because of the technical and stylistic demands it makes on all the dancers from leads to corps dancers. Aurora is a more difficult role to dance well than possibly anything else in the ballerina repertory. The choreography can expose weaknesses in technique and form like no other.
I am already marking my calendars for this. Sleeping Beauty is a test for any company worth its name, simply because of the technical and stylistic demands it makes on all the dancers from leads to corps dancers. Aurora is a more difficult role to dance well than possibly anything else in the ballerina repertory. The choreography can expose weaknesses in technique and form like no other.