The Sleeping Beauty

Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, proposed Perrault's tale to Tchaikovsky in 1888 and sketched the scenario himself, with Marius Petipa supplying a plan that specified the character, metre and number of bars for each dance. Tchaikovsky wrote quickly and considered the result among his best work. The Mariinsky premiere in January 1890 met a cool press and a famously tepid compliment from the Tsar. The ballet's standing grew slowly, and the score is now heard as the most symphonically continuous of the three Tchaikovsky wrote for the stage.