Joseph Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 Just wondering, why in most versions of Sleeping Beauty, in the Rose Adagio, the fourth suitor tends to get most of the attention from her (he tends to partner her more than the rest.) I did this part once and was always curious why he was the more lucky of the four? Of course musically, she ends with him so he can finish everything. But perhaps the other guys deserve equal attention? haha I could look it up I guess, but wondering if anyone knows here... Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 Structurally, you are correct. In order to achieve the parallelism which is characteristic of Petipa, the fourth guy has to be the last to dance with Aurora all through the adagio, with the theatrical effect being that she seems to prefer him! It also fulfills the requirements of "Petipa syndrome" in which you do everything three times, then change on the fourth repetition. In the original production, the fourth prince's costume bore a striking resemblance to Louis XIV, which was a continuing theme through the whole ballet - the autocrat is the best! If I remember rightly, the Messel production for Royal Ballet had him look a lot like Charles II! Rule, Britannia!!! Link to comment
rg Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 somehow i think this has been discussed here before. maybe in the balletalert days? in any case, i understand from a member of ABT's artistic staff that Lucia Chase used to refer to the fourth cavalier as 'the prince' as in asking "who's going to dance 'the prince'?" when she was at a production meeting or some such where casting for THE SLEEPING BEAUTY was concerned. i don't recall if Wiley addresses this point in TCHAIKOVSKY'S BALLETS. Link to comment
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