Tschaikowsky - Sleeping Beauty - Collectors Mine

s/w
Ballet in Three Acts.

"Interpreters"
Princess Aurora - Dame Margot Fonteyn
Prince Florimund - Michael Somes
The Lilac Fairy - Dame Beryl Grey
Carabosse - Sir Frederick Ashton
The Bluebird - Brian Shaw
Princess Florine - Rowena Jackson
Soloistis and Corps de ballet
Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet
Conductor: Robert Irwing

Tchaikovsky's three great ballets, "The Nutcracker", "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake" are the most popular of all standard ballet classics. By dint of its seasonality, "The Nutcracker" has probably racked up more performances than any ballet in history. However, on its purely musical merits, "The Sleeping Beauty" with its more symphonic compositional style, stands as Tschaikovsky's greatest triumph among his scores for the dance.
Petipa's choreograpohy for "The Sleeping Beauty" was inspired. Highlights include the entrance of Aurora, the ensuing Rose Adagio, the great Vision Scene, the Bluebird "pas de deux" and the final "Grand pas de deux". For the ballerina, Petipa created an essentially lyrical choreography style. There are none of the pyrotechnics to be found in the ballerina's second act solo or the Black Swan "pas de deux" of "Swan Lake". For Margot Fonteyn, that most lyrical dancers, Aurora was a perfect role as well as her most celebrated. Her long-time partner, Michael Somes, the most patrician of "danseurs nobles", joins her in this recorded treasure from television's "Golden Age".

Producers' Showcast, Telecast of December 12, 1955