The Swans for you

By Lin Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-29 15:59

The Russian National Ballet Theater (RNBT) will present Sleeping Beauty on Jan 13 and 14, with other two performances of Swan Lake and Nutcracker in the following weeks.

Although his only previous ballet, Swan Lake, had not been very well received, Tchaikovsky accepted a commission to compose Sleeping Beauty for choreographer Marius Petipa's ballet without hesitation.

He began working on it with great pleasure and high hopes in the winter of 1888 and Sleeping Beauty was premiered by the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1890. It received better press reviews than Swan Lake and was the Imperial Ballet's second most popular production.

The ballet's first performance outside Russia, at Milan's La Scala in 1896, did not arouse much interest and it was not until 1921 that the ballet finally gained wide acclaim at London's Alhambra Theatre. Sleeping Beauty is widely regarded as the composer's finest ballet score, and one of classical music's most famous ballets.

Poly Theater, Dongsi Shitiao

800-810-8798, 6504-6966

All performances, 7:30 pm

Swan Lake: Jan 15,16,27,28

Nutcracker: Jan 17,18

Sleeping Beauty: Jan 13,14