Research Catalog

Title

The sleeping beauty [electronic resource] / [presented by] the Sadler's Wells Ballet ; choreography by Frederick Ashton and Nikolai Sergeyev after Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Ninette de Valois ; music by Peter Tchaikovsky.

Publication

[1949-50]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Fonteyn, Margot, 1919-1991
• Helpmann, Robert, Sir, 1909-1986
• Somes, Michael, 1917-1994
• Grey, Beryl, 1927-2022
• Jessen, Victor
• Ashton, Frederick, 1904-1988
• Sergeev, Nikolaĭ Grigor'evich, 1876-1951
• Petipa, Marius, 1818-1910
• Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 1840-1893
• Messel, Oliver, 1904-1978
• Sadler's Wells Ballet, performer.

Description

2 streaming video files (123 min.) : sd., b&w.

Summary

Notes by David Vaughan: In Act I the Royal Ballet would slow the Tempi for the Rose Adagio considerably which shaped the balances. The Garland Waltz is the one choreographed by Ashton in 1946 for 12 women. It was danced until 1967 and again in the 1977-92 production. The entrance for Aurora shows how the Messel production made her run right along the back, strike an arabesque, and then run right off again at the far side before re-entering from the next wing. Ashton developed this entrance from his memory of Olga Spessivtseva's entrance along a colonnade in the 1921 Diaghilev production. Pamela May is the Queen before and during the Rose Adagio. In Act II, Jessen's film seems to be mainly drawn from the 1953 and/or later tours of the USA, because in the version of Aurora's Vision Scene solo variation he mostly shows the one choreographed by Ashton in 1952. In Acts II & III, the Jessen film shows how the production linked the Awakening (usually at the end of Act II) into the Act III Wedding with a curtain-up onstage transformation. This effect in the 1946-67 Messel production was adapted from the 1921 Diaghilev version. The adagio of the Wedding pas de deux was plainly filmed at succesive performances. This film shows the feet-tucked-up-together (diamond shape) lifts that were Petipa's original choreography until Fonteyn changed them in 1955/56.

Donor/Sponsor

Victor Jessen Collection.

Uniform Title

Sleeping beauty (Choreographic work : Ashton and Sergeev, N after Petipa, M)

Genre/Form

• Dance.
• Motion pictures.
• Video.

Note

• Kenneth Macmillan retired from the stage in 1955, becoming a choreographer. This performance is the only good view of his classical dancing.
• David Vaughan and others remember that in 1999, an NYPL staff member brought the Jessen film to London to show at the Royal Academy of Dancing's conference, "The Fonteyn Phenomenon." The film came in two canisters. The first, showing the Prologue and Act I, as in the current NYPL version shows. For Acts II and III, however, several things were different, and I have long wondered if somehow there was/is an alternative canister. A: none of us remember seeing Act II at all, the Vision Scene of Journey to the Castle. B: None of us remember the solo variation for the Prince shown here. C: We all remember the film of Fonteyn's Act II solo variation being even more off the music but more magical in its obsessive multiple takes of the crucial diagonal of her sixteen petits developpes.

Access (note)

• Patrons can access streaming video files online only on site at the Library for the Performing Arts.

Credits (note)

• Music performed live with conducting by Robert Irving ; scenery and costumes, Oliver Messel.

Event (note)

• Filmed by Victor Jessen in 1949 and 1950 during various performances of the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and other theaters during their U.S. tours. Edited, with addition of sound, in 1979 by Mr. Jessen.

Contents

Prologue (The christening) (24 min., 30 sec.) -- Act I (The spell) (28 min., 55 sec.) -- Act II The vision) (27 min., 20 sec.) -- Act III (Scene 1, The awakening. Scene 2, The wedding) (42 min., 30 sec.)

Call Number

*MGZIA 4-4675

OCLC

NYPY877038262-F

Title

The sleeping beauty [electronic resource] / [presented by] the Sadler's Wells Ballet ; choreography by Frederick Ashton and Nikolai Sergeyev after Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Ninette de Valois ; music by Peter Tchaikovsky.

Imprint

[1949-50]

Event

Filmed by Victor Jessen in 1949 and 1950 during various performances of the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and other theaters during their U.S. tours. Edited, with addition of sound, in 1979 by Mr. Jessen.

Credits

Music performed live with conducting by Robert Irving ; scenery and costumes, Oliver Messel.

Performer

Performed by Margot Fonteyn (Princess Aurora), with Robert Helpmann (Act II) and Michael Somes (Act III) (Prince Florimund) ; Beryl Grey (Lilac fairy) ; Frederick Ashton (Carabosse) ; Pamela May, Julia Farron and possibly June Brae (Queen) ; Alfred Rodriguez(?) (King) ; Lesie Edwards (Catalabutte) ; Kenneth MacMillan (One of the six cavaliers and Florestan) ; Brian Shaw and Violetta Elvin (Pas de deux for Bluebird and Princess FLorine) ; and artists of Sadler's Wells Ballet.

First cast of Six Fairies: Violetta Elvin (no. 1, Fairy of the Crystal Fountains), Pamela May (no. 2, Fairy of the Enchanted Gardens?), Nadia Nerina (no. 3, Fairy of the Woodland Glades), Pauline Clayden (no. 4, Fairy of the Songbirds), Margaret Dale (no. 5, Fairy of the Golden Vine), Beryl Grey (no. 6, Lilac Fairy) ; Second cast of Fairies: Ann Negus (no. 2, Fairy of the Enchanted Gardens?) and Svetlana Beriosova (no. 6, Lilac Fairy).

Restricted Access

Patrons can access streaming video files online only on site at the Library for the Performing Arts.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Local Subject

Ballet in motion pictures. Sleeping beauty.

Added Author

Fonteyn, Margot, 1919-1991, dancer.

Helpmann, Robert, Sir, 1909-1986, dancer.

Somes, Michael, 1917-1994, dancer.

Grey, Beryl, 1927-2022, dancer.

Jessen, Victor, film editor.

Ashton, Frederick, 1904-1988, choreographer, dancer.

Sergeev, Nikolaĭ Grigor'evich, 1876-1951, choreographer.

Petipa, Marius, 1818-1910, choreographer.

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 1840-1893, composer.

Messel, Oliver, 1904-1978, set designer.

Messel, Oliver, 1904-1978, costume designer.

Sadler's Wells Ballet, performer.

Added Title

Sleeping beauty (Choreographic work : Ashton and Sergeev, N after Petipa, M)

Research Call Number

*MGZIA 4-4675

*MGZHB 16-1822 Additional copy ; 4 film reels (4800 ft.) 16mm.