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Private Notes
Darcey Bussell introduces edited highlights of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, created especially for television by producer/director Margaret Dale in 1959 and featuring the then stars of the Royal Ballet, Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes. This rarely seen film gives viewers a glimpse of an authentic 1950s style of ballet, transporting them back to the living rooms of post-war Britain. The performance features footage previously feared lost, but now able to be seen for the first time since the original broadcast over 50 years ago. This recently rediscovered archive includes the 'lost kiss' - the awakening of Sleeping Beauty by a kiss from her handsome prince.
Shakespeare's late, great romance The Winter's Tale is brought to exuberant and colourful life by The Royal Ballet in choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's full-length production, which had its world premiere at the Royal Opera House in 2014.
This classic story follows the destruction of a marriage through all-consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret - and after a statue comes miraculously to life - the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Wheeldon continues his highly successful collaboration with designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot to bring this striking and poignant production to the stage, with a cast of world-class dancers interpreting one of Shakespeare's most moving plays.
