edition May-June 2022

Good ... And Evil, Too

Marcia Haydée reinterprets “Sleeping Beauty”

Marcia Haydée (li.) und Polina Semionova bei Proben zu "Dornröschen" am Staatsballett Berlin. © Yan Revazov

Text: Frana Kisch

As a dancer, Marcia Haydée inspired great choreographers such as John Cranko, Maurice Béjart and John Neu­meier and directed the Stuttgart Ballet herself for 20 years. Now the inter­ national luminary is staging her own version of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” at the Staatsballett Berlin. Denied an invitation to the christening, the fairy Carabosse curses Princess Aurora – danced by Polina Semionova at the premiere – and prophesies her death. Under a spell cast by the Lilac Fairy, the prin­cess falls asleep and can only be saved by the kiss of a prince. That’s the classic story. Yet even the contemporary casting of the fairy Carabosse with the dancer Dinu Tamazlacaru situates Haydee’s “Sleeping Beauty” in a long line of tradition: at the pre­miere in 1890, the role of the evil fairy was also danced by a ballerino – Enrico Cecchetti. The Berlin reinter­pretation of the classic refrains from drawing clear boundaries between good and evil; instead, Marcia Hay­dée chooses to explore the ambiva­lence of evil through the figure of the fairy Carabosse.

Marcia Haydée / Staatsballett Berlin
Dornroeschen
May 13, 18, 19 and 28, June 3, 6, 10, 24 and 28, 2022
Deutsche Oper Berlin
www.staatsballett-berlin.de

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