(Picture from the site of the English
National Ballet, click on it to see a bigger picture)
Music: Piotr Illitch Tchaikovsky.
Choreography: Marius Petipa .
Plot: I.A. Vsevolozhsky.
Premiere: on January 15, 1890 in Saint-Petesrburg (Theater Maryinsky).
Dancers at the premiere: Carlotta Brianza (Aurore),
Pavel Gerdt (Prince Désiré), Enrico Cechetti (Carabosse,
the Blue Bird), Marie Petipa, V. Nikitina.
In the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet.
About the Ballet:
It was thanks to I.A. Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial
Theatres from 1881 to 1899, that this ballet was created. He encouraged
Tchaikovsky to compose the music for it, after the failure
of Swan Lake: the score was compose
to the exact demands of Marius Petipa. The ballet was not an immediate
success, but soon found a faithful audience.
It was later staged by the Ballets Russes
in London in 1921 (Diaghilev, Leon Bakst and Alexandre Benois loved
this ballet). Later, several versions were staged in the Western
world (by Sergeyev, Nureyev, Rosella Hightower, Grigorovitch, Alicia Alonso,
Mary Skeaping...)
Some great interprets of Aurora: Margot Fonteyn, Irina Kolpakova, Rosella Hightower, Ludmila Semenyaka, Noëlla Pontois...