On August 26, Opus Arte presents Sleeping Beauty performed by The Royal Ballet and conducted by Valeriy Ovsyanikov. This performance of Tchaikovsky’s second ballet, filmed in December of 2006 to mark the 75th anniversary of The Royal Ballet Company, is a revival of the original full-length 1946 production of Sleeping Beauty. As a fitting tribute to The Royal Ballet’s unique style and lush designs, the original designs by Oliver Messels and choreography by famed Marius Petipa are used for this commemorative occasion. Dancers Alina Cojocaru, Federico Bonelli, Christopher Saunders, Genesia Rosato, and Marianela Nuñez lead the viewer through this wonderfully whimsical fairy tale.
Based at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Royal Ballet is Great Britain’s most prestigious ballet company. The 95-strong troupe is acknowledged to be reaching a new artistic and technical peak with talented dancers at all levels in its ranks. The Company’s wide-ranging repertory showcases the great classical ballets including The Royal Ballets own heritage, alongside new works by the foremost international choreographers of today and choreographers from within the Company’s own ranks. This range embraces all the celebrated three-act classical ballets, together with works by Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton and Principal Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, ballets by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon and works by Ashley Page and rising British talents amongst those regularly performed.

On July 29, Opus Arte releases La fille mal gardée, with music composed by Ferdinand Hérold (arranged by John Lanchbery) and choreography by Frederick Ashton, recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in February of 2005. It has been said that La fille mal gardée was the first ballet about regular people in everyday situations, and although its first performance occurred at the dawn of the French Revolution, there is no evidence that proves that its original choreographer meant the ballet as revolutionary propaganda. The simple story of a forbidden village love affair, it is without question that that the ballet is intended as an unpretentious illustration that true love conquers all. 

La fille mal gardée was first performed in 1789 at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux and was choreographed by Jean Dauberval. Frederick Ashton’s production of the ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House on January 28, 1960, and unlike many of the other ballets that Ashton had choreographed in the 1950’s, it became an immediate classic. It was famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina who convinced Ashton to create his own version of Hérold’s ballet. Karsavina showed Ashton the mimes that she had learned as a child at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. These passages dated back to the production staged by French Choreographer Marius Petipa in 1885, and some markings in original choreographer Dauberval’s score suggest that some of them may go back to 1789.