The Moscow Festival Ballet presents The Sleeping Beauty | Press Releases

8 p.m., Friday, March 30, 2012
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
Tickets are $ 45, $40, and $35

Image: Moscow Ballet The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts presents one of the finest achievements of classical ballet when The Moscow Festival Ballet performs " The Sleeping Beauty " at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 30, 2012 . Tickets are $45, $40, and $35, with discounts available for children, students and seniors.

"The Sleeping Beauty," a full-length ballet in three acts, premiered on January 16, 1890, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. With music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa, the ballet is a grandiose and refined blending of the traditional mime, expressive pas de deux, and spectacular divertissements presented in a lavish and theatrical setting. "The Sleeping Beauty" is considered the crowning jewel of Marius Petipa's career and another of the symphonic masterpieces of composer Tchaikovsky, who was delighted with the invitation to write the music for a ballet based on Charles Perrault's well-known fairy tale.

The Moscow Festival Ballet was founded in 1989, when legendary principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet Sergei Radchenko sought to realize his vision of bringing together the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies into an independent new company within the framework of Russian classic ballet. Mr. Radchenko researched the original choreography and stage productions of several of Marius Petipa's classic ballets, and, under his direction, leading dancers from across Russia forged exciting new productions of timeless classics such as "The Sleeping Beauty," "Don Quixote" and "Paquita", and a recreation of Jules Perrot's and Jean Coralli's "Giselle."

Image: Moscow Ballet Over the years, Mr. Radchenko has continued to expand the Moscow Festival Ballet repertoire. The company commissions new works from within Russia and abroad and it also specializes in 20th century full-length ballets such as "Cinderella," "Romeo and Juliet," "Legend of Love," "Stone Flower" and "The Golden Age." Since its inception, the Moscow Festival Ballet has toured the world, with extraordinary receptions in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, capacity audiences at London's famed Coliseum, and successful performances in Turkey, at the Istanbul Festival, and in Greece at the Athens Festival. It recently completed a two-month tour of Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and, since 1997, has toured extensively throughout the United States.

"The Sleeping Beauty" follows the fairy tale adventure of a young princess who is forced by an evil fairy to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday. The princess is saved by the gift of the good Lilac Fairy, who declares the princess will only sleep until awakened by the kiss of a prince. The themes, a young girl's coming of age and the triumph of good over evil, are developed dramatically and musically during the course of the ballet, and each act is a unity unto itself. The production is replete with a king and queen, fairies both good and evil, a beautiful princess and dream prince, magical stage effects, and courtly splendor.

The ballet is a supreme demonstration of the challenge of choreographer Petipa's style - steel point work, sharply accented spinning turns, soaring leaps, high extensions, and daring lifts. "The Sleeping Beauty" was choreographed in strict association with Tchaikovsky's music, who willingly took instruction from Petipa as to the length, tempo and character of each musical sequence, as he would also do in "The Nutcracker." "The Sleeping Beauty" was the first of Petipa's classics to be seen in Western Europe and has now been adopted worldwide. The performance of the leading role remains a kind of initiation rite for aspiring ballerinas.

Tickets and subscriptions are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at http://www.fairfield.edu/quick .

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. Entrance to the Quick Center is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Free, secure parking is available. Access for people with disabilities is available throughout the Quick Center for audience members and performers. Hearing amplification devices are available upon request at the Box Office. Fairfield University is located off exit 22 of Interstate-95. For further information and directions, call (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396, or visit http://www.fairfield.edu/quick .