“The Sleeping Beauty”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 16, 2025 (live stream)
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf
According to the Australian Ballet’s artistic director, David Hallberg, The Sleeping Beauty is “a splendor for the eyes.” The production, which originated ten years ago under the directorship of Hallberg’s predecessor, David McAllister (who also contributed choreography based on Petipa’s original), is more; it is food for the soul.
As if zooming in on the painting of a distant palace projected on the curtain, the first scene showed the royal writing cabinet, where the whimsical Catalabutte (Jarryd Madden) omitted Carabosse from the list of invitees to Princess Aurora’s christening party. The curve of the painting’s frame recurred in the shape of the banisters that led down to the royal hall. Jon Buswell’s lighting increased the impression of paintings in motion.
Petipa’s librettist, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, set The Sleeping Beauty in France during the era of King Louis XIV, the time period of the second and third acts. Some productions indulge in lavish Louis XIV and Baroque décor, but the Australians’ set and costume designer, Gabriela Tylesova, cleverly balanced opulence with plain elegance. An empty front stage highlighted the king’s (guest artist, Adam Bull) golden Baroque desk (for which the extra-long, white quill was the icing on the cake). Low-keyed, red-and-golden tapestries served as a tasteful background for the court ladies’ lush, skipping skirts and the fairies’ colorful tutus. The hunting party rested at a clearing whose surrounding nature was so subtle that the hunters’ vanities looked especially out of place.
Later, when Prince Désiré (Chengwu Guo) searched for the sleeping Aurora (Benedicte Bemet), a pink light glowed inside her Fabergé egg-like bed, the magic of which was enhanced by the dark blue night. Splendor climaxed in Act III when Aurora and Prince Désiré got married and were crowned at a masked ball. Magnificent chandeliers, the golden rays of a huge sun symbol, and the shimmering shower of golden confetti added to a picture-book finale. It’s not for nothing that McAllister called his Sleeping Beauty the “ultimate dress-up party.”
Some details given by Hallberg and the live stream’s presenter, Livinia Nixon, during the intervals described the expense and time that went into the décor. Senior assistant stage manager, Ellen Castles, revealed that the entire set includes no fewer than 12,500 crystals; Natalie Way, head of wigs and makeup, oversaw the creation of one hundred or so wigs, of which the king’s hip-length Louis XIV version weighs six kilograms. Hand-sewing the three hundred costumes took the workshops one year. Given this effort, it was high time to revive this Sleeping Beauty.
McAllister’s choreography is based on Petipa’s, but shorter. It tells the story with refreshing clarity.
McAllister cut the promenades between scene changes, the transition between Act I and Act II, and many divertissements of the wedding party. Among the attending fairy tale figures in Act III were Cinderella (Riley Lapham) and Prince Charming (Luke Marchant), the White Cat (Serena Graham) and Puss in Boots (Drew Hedditch), and Red Riding Hood (Montana Rubin) and the Wolf (Hugo Dumapit), but none of them danced. The only pas de deux that McAllister kept was that of the Bluebird (Cameron Holmes) and Princess Florine (Yuumi Yamada). Although the series of jumps challenged Holmes’s stamina, he sailed through without fault. Yamada moved with the jerkiness of a sweet little bird enjoying flying.
Aurora’s fairy godmothers joined the wedding as well: the Fairy of Grace (Isobelle Dashwood)—the epitome of kindness and patience—the elvish Fairy of Joy (Aya Watanabe), the Fairy of Generosity (Mia Heathcote) who was either withdrawn in herself or in higher spheres, the quicksilver Canari Fairy (Samara Merrick) who fluttered and jumped like a chirpy bird, and the Fairy of Temperament (Larissa Kiyoto-Ward) whose snappy precision gave her a charming resoluteness.
All virtues combined in Rina Nemoto’s Lilac Fairy. Again, the wicked Carabosse (Katherine Sonnekus) wasn’t invited, though she was the Fairy of Wisdom (symbols represented each fairy at the christening; hers was an owl). Maybe she had fallen from grace like the archangel Lucifer?
Most impressive from Bemet’s Aurora was her embodiment of the music. It encapsulated her being. I’ve never seen an Aurora who visualized music in movement that sensitively. All the beauty inherent in Tchaikovsky’s score (which was superbly brought to life by Jonathan Lo and the Opera Australia Orchestra) became visible through her.
Once Guo’s Prince understood that his heart missed love, new energy infused his veins. He dashed through a series of jetés, soared high, landed with pinpoint precision, and prolonged clear-cut balances as if he were a statue. Bemet’s and Guo’s fish dives in the Grand Pas de Deux were spectacular, and their accentuation was in such harmony with the music that I wondered why other choreographers hadn’t come up with the same ideas.
Harrison Bradley as the Spanish Prince, Joseph Romancewicz as the English Prince, Davi Ramos as the Hungarian Prince, and Alain Juelg as the Swedish Prince portrayed Aurora’s four suitors.
| Links: | Website of the Australian Ballet | |
| David Hallberg and David McAllister in conversation: The Sleeping Beauty | ||
| Mia Heathcote and Sharni Spencer on The Sleeping Beauty | ||
| Rina Nemoto as the Lilac Fairy | ||
| Three words to describe The Sleeping Beauty | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
| 2. | Ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 3. | Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 4. | Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 5. | Hugo Dumapit and Drew Hedditch (Hunting Party), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 6. | Rina Nemoto (Lilac Fairy), Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 7. | Katherine Sonnekus (Carabosse), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 8. | Yuumi Yamada (Princess Florine), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 9. | Larissa Kiyoto-Ward (Fairy of Temperament), “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 10. | Mia Heathcote (Fairy of Generosity), Larissa Kiyoto-Ward (Fairy of Temperament), Rina Nemoto (Lilac Fairy), Samara Merrick (Canari Fairy), Aya Watanabe (Fairy of Joy), and Isobelle Dashwood (Fairy of Grace); “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 11. | Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora) and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 12. | Adam Bull (The King), Jillian Revie (The Queen), and ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| 13. | Chengwu Guo (Prince Désiré), Benedicte Bemet (Princess Aurora), and ensemble; “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 | |
| 14. | Ensemble, “The Sleeping Beauty” by David McAllister after Marius Petipa, The Australian Ballet 2025 |
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| all photos © Daniel Boud |
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| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |
