DRESDEN Dresden audiences can look forward to some scintillating classical dance from Friday, 9 February 2024, when Semperoper Ballett once again performs Tchaikovsky’s narrative ballet Sleeping Beauty in an opulently staged production with stunning costumes. Numerous company members are making their role debuts in the performances scheduled for February and March 2024. And, as part of a partnership with the renowned Palucca University of Dance Dresden, students will for the first time appear in this Semperoper Ballett production. The Staatskapelle Dresden will be conducted by Benjamin Pope; later in the performance run, Tom Seligman will assume conducting duties.

Since its premiere at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre in 1890, Tchaikovsky’s glittering Sleeping Beauty has been regarded as one of the most physically challenging classical narrative ballets in the repertoire. The long-standing director of Semperoper Ballett, Aaron S. Watkin, brought the magical work to Dresden in 2007, basing his version around the original work of legendary choreographer Marius Petipa.

For this revival in the 2023/24 season, the current artistic director of Semperoper Ballett, Marcelo Gomes, has once again refashioned the choreography. Various nuances in Gomes’s adaptation serve to spotlight the flowering of the title character as an essential element in the well-known story. In this way, the focus is placed on Princess Aurora’s development from child to young woman – from her christening at the royal court in the circle of good fairies to the curse of the jealous evil fairy Carabosse and the hundred-year slumber from which Sleeping Beauty awakens through the prince’s kiss.

First cast Kanako Fujimoto as Princess Aurora and Julian Amir Lacey as Florimond, but it will be interesting to see in the following performances the debut in the female leading role three Italian dancers from the company: Chiara Scarrone (16 and 25 February), Susanna Santoro (14 and 16 March) and Francesca Cesaro (21 March). More info on the website: semperoper.de/en

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