Melbourne City Ballet search for true love’s kiss with the classic Sleeping Beauty
Regional Victoria | 19 April – 5 May
Audiences across Victoria will be swept up in the fairytale romance of Sleeping Beauty as Melbourne City Ballet returns to the stage in 2018.
As the fairies promised, Princess Aurora, grows more beautiful, modest, kind and clever with each passing year but on her 16th birthday, the spiteful fairy Carabosse’s curse rings true and Aurora falls into a deep sleep. Protected by the Lilac fairy, Aurora sleeps for 100 years before she is found by Prince Desire who awakens her with true love’s kiss. A true classic, the glorious music of Tchaikovsky will combine with stunning sets and costumes to create a charming ballet suitable for the whole family.
Melbourne City Ballet’s company have enjoyed a longer than typical development time with Sleeping Beauty this year, having been in rehearsals since early January. “When choosing Sleeping Beauty as the company’s first season for 2018, I knew it was critical that the artists had enough time to truly embrace the repertoire and develop the characters of this classic story,” says Artistic Director Michael Pappalardo. “Sleeping Beauty is such a well known ballet for so many people, I felt it was crucial to ensure the company was putting our best foot forward for audiences,” he continues.
As part of the company’s ongoing community participation strategy, auditions will also be announced shortly for two special community roles within the production. This time, two Community Adult Ballet students will have the opportunity to participate in small walk on roles within the production.
Melbourne City Ballet will tour Sleeping Beauty to Preston, Wangaratta, Frankston and Geelong before the company embarks on their largest national tour to date of well known works Carmen and Madame Butterfly.