Sleeping Beauty op. 66

Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky‘s second ballet, is a superb creation in several respects at once. Not only is it the longest of his works altogether, at nearly three hour’s duration, it is also laid out on a grand scale with regard to the number of characters. Nearly fifty solo roles have to be cast, and even if the dancers take multiple roles there remain the huge requirements in stage décor (such as costumes), not to mention the size of the remaining ensemble and the large orchestral apparatus. In his lifetime, moreover, Sleeping Beauty was Tchaikovsky’s most successful ballet. After barely two years the composer could already attend the fiftieth performance in

St. Petersburg – in sharp contrast to the reception accorded to Swan Lake! Further, musicians rank Sleeping Beauty among the paragons of musical craftsmanship: it exceeds both Swan Lake and The Nutcracker in its symphonic fabric and is more broadly conceived in its musical expression. It is also more highly sophisticated in its motivic delineation of character and especially striking for its congruence between music and plot, a feature it owes in particular to its gestation (see below). Even the sternly self-critical composer was aware of the high quality of his work and considered Sleeping Beauty one of his finest creations both during the act of composition and in later years.