Sleeping Beauty - A Gothic Romance (Music By Tchaikovsky)[Blu-ray]

This is a very different take on the Sleeping Beauty story that most of us are familiar with. It starts in 1890, Aurora is struck with the curse and put to sleep in 1911, then she is awoken in 2011 to finish the story. This take is full of dark fairies and vampires(!), but it all comes together pretty well and makes sense. The choreography is unusual and struck me as more athletic than classically balletic, but it suited the production well. The sets were all beautiful, they reminded me of the dense imagery that Tim Burton uses in his movies, and there were some pretty intense scenes with the vampires, especially the finale. I thought all the dancers were marvelous and the young woman who played Sleeping Beauty was indeed a beauty, and very charming. Like I said, this is a very different view of this fairy tale, and I loved it! Definitely glad to have it in my library.

Saw the production in L.A. last year, and find that I like the video version much more. There was so much going on and special lighting in the theatre that this video focuses and highlights some of the missed moments. The idea of combining so many different cultural views of the story, including the vampiric touches only gives more credit to MB's ability to re-create from the masterpieces and put a new spin on the genre. If only they'd release his CINDERELLA and PLAY WITHOUT WORDS and DORIAN GREY and EDWARD SCISSOR HANDS.. At least there are snippets on line and even in the mini doc on this disc. Yes, we can and SHOULD enjoy and laugh at the classics if they deserve response to their humor. And thank you, Matthew Bourne, for making ballet an almost interactive sport...after all, without your audience's responses, what would this all be about?

As others have pointed out, the story and choreography are changed radically. The story is pretty well over by the end of act 2 in the traditional ballet--all that remains is the wedding celebration. In this version, an already suspenseful story hits a high when Aurora is awakened, creating an urgency to get to the final act. My wife doesn't like the traditional Sleeping Beauty because of all the divertissements that have nothing to do with the story. She absolutely loves this production.The 1080p widescreen video is stunning as is the DTS MA 5.1 audio track. The judicious use of close-up and full stage views doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the ballet, as so often happens in DVDs & Blu-rays.

This was an Awesome Ballet. Matthew Bourne is the Tim Burton of the Ballet stage :)). And, Liam Mower, which was one of the first Billy Elliot's stared in this ballet, He was Awesome as well. I do hope in the future that Matthew Bourne puts Liam Mower in more of his dvd's and Blu ray's. This is a Great Ballet

To my way of thinking, this production is artistic perfection. You must see it. You will be rewarded with a couple of hours of brilliance in every way from awesome sets to the nicely turned new story, then on to inspired dancing.

This is so damn creative and enjoyable. Great direction and choreography, great scenic design, clear image and terrific sound.

very ingenious take on the sleeping beauty story. love Dominic North

Verified Purchase in the UKThis version of the Sleeping Beauty by Matthew Bourne is completely unlike any other. It certainly could not be described as traditional but neither could it be described as trivial. This is a serious attempt to deliver a vision that equates to the story as found using various sources and then to enable Tchaikovsky’s music to drive the narration onward.The flavour of this concept can easily be deduced from the subtitle – A Gothic Romance. This well-known story, like so many traditional fairy and folk tales, has a darker side not hinted at in the traditional ballet version. One has only to consider the Grimm’s folk tales or Dvorak’s settings of Slavonic tales to immediately see that a darker version such as this is completely valid.The fairies in this case are a mixture of male and female and are uniformly attired and presented in ways that are not entirely gentle. Matthew Bourne crucially addresses the concept of True Love’s kiss which awakens Aurora by introducing a mutual attraction between herself and the Royal gamekeeper prior to her sleep. This makes the idea of True Love far more acceptable than the instant attraction between herself and a random prince in the traditional version.Another key idea is that Aurora’s parents were childless and that the baby was supplied by Carabosse. Her vindictive response to not being included in the celebrations of Aurora’s arrival is therefore dramatically more understandable. Another addition is the idea that Carabosse had a son, Caradoc, who was able to continue her revenge into the future. The way in which Caradoc manages to break the spell, not being True Love, adds to another twist which then leads the story on to its proper conclusion.The baby Aurora is wonderfully presented by use of a life-sized puppet which has a major interacting role to play. The puppet is also the means by which the story is continued beyond Aurora’s eventual marriage.These ideas, as well as others not mentioned above, are both imaginative and dramatically justifiable. Matthew Bourne successfully tightens the entire plot in this production, clearing away loose ends and creating a more dramatic work than the traditional productions. Those who feel that the traditional ballet slackens dramatically in the final act especially will find that this version sustains a dramatic narrative to the end. Those concerned about Aurora’s reawakening in 2011 may be relieved to know that Matthew Bourne has a convincing, and possibly amusing, conclusion that avoids any potential mismatch of life styles!The music throughout is mostly that of the familiar traditional ballet and is all by Tchaikovsky with only slight deviations, all driven by the original story line. It is important to note that his is an abbreviated version of the ballet running for 30 minutes less than the Royal Ballet version for example. This is not a loss to this production which is dramatically tighter as a result and as intended. All the dancers perform as well as would be expected although the steps are inevitably not the same as in the traditional versions.The recording of this Blu-ray is musically faithful to the orchestral sound and of good HD quality. The visuals are equally excellent. The disc includes a substantial 52 minute bonus describing the ideas behind this production which is well-worth investigating.Without going into intricate detail this production can be summarised as fully justifying its considerable popular reception and positive critical reputation.

Künstleriche Perfektion, zauberhaft schön 🥰

As described

トゥを履かない、バレエですが、迫力の演技、新しい解釈は、新たな時代を感じさせ、人間らしい、オーロラの可愛らしいこと。特に仇のカラボスや、その息子カラドックに心を奪われてしまいました

Oui, c'est un très beau spectacle, bien mis en scène, aux décors riches et 'parlant'. Sans doute n'y a t-il là pas d'autre ambition que de satisfaire les yeux et les oreilles, mais c'est bien cela qu'on attend aussi : cette satisfaction d'un tout plaisant.

We all have our likes and dislikes. For instance, I've always preferred action woman Rapunzel to passive damsel Sleeping Beauty. Whilst the former uses one of her outstanding attributes to fool her captor and solve her problem, the other passively accepts every inconvenience inflicted upon her, first passively allowing herself to be induced into a long sleep and then depending on someone else to get her out of her difficulty. Although the Bolshoi Ballet dances to a high standard, what is that beside the inspiration of creative innovation? Most of us have been through the experience of seeing something or other performed immaculately to the very letter of perfection but still came away unsatisfied. We are told endlessly such things as: Bolshoi is the best; they interpret Tchaikovsky better than any other ballet company. But do they? Is it not a question of: if you get a reputation for early rising, you can lie in bed till noon? 'Oh, it must be the right way to do it because the Bolshoi is doing it that way.' So parrot the pantless* victims coming away from yet another 'danced to the rulebook' performance.Whether or not this Matthew Bourne production of Sleeping Beauty is in Gothic style is irrelevant simply because it's a brilliant, imaginatively choreographed masterpiece of the highest order that runs circles round the so called 'traditional', Bolshoi or otherwise, productions. For once the Sleeping Beauty takes on the character of a strong willed, Rapunzel type lady, here brilliantly danced by Hannah Vassallo, with a will of her own as we see when she persistently continues to reject other suitors, such as Lord Rupert (Daniel Collins), in favour of Leo, the royal gamekeeper, here attractively danced by Dominic North. Everyone involved in this production deserves the highest praise for a job well done.Something else that impresses me with this performance is the definitive way in which the various fairy folk are portrayed as strong, focussed personalities devoid of 'soppy fairy' attributes. Then we have the delight of Sleeping Beauty, when she was a baby, crawling all over the place and up the curtains, all of it carefully choreographed. This is Matthew Bourne's style. 'Give me any movement and I'll choreograph it,' he seems to say. 'I'll even choreograph one of Rossini's laundry lists it there are still any of them left lying around.' We have here a delightfully innovative choreographer of the highest order who will attract more and more people to watch and enjoy ballet.In a way it's the Swan Lake syndrome all over again. I used to get so fed up with people saying: 'O yes, you mean Swan Lake and The Nutcracker', when I mentioned the word 'ballet', that I vowed never to watch performances of these two works ever again. The very mention of 'sugar plum fairy' would send me running. Now we have Matthew Bourne, the man who can change all this. A man such as him who can choreograph the Sleeping Beauty character into being on a par with the Rapuntzel one has to be a genius and he has done just that. This is a truly wonderful performance, which I'm perfectly sure most ballet lovers will thoroughly enjoy. It's so inspiringly innovative as it re-interprets Tchaikovsky's score in scintillating fashion all along the line in this excellent Blu-Ray, no problems, recording.. Brilliant.* pantless. They've been bored off them.