Featured Book: Tchaikovsky by David Brown (cont'd)

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Brown writes about Sleeping Beauty: "The idea for a ballet to be based on a folktale as told by the seventeenth-century French writer Charles Perrault, had come from Vsevolozhsky [the Intendant of the Imperial Theatres] in May 1888, and the scenario would be basically his. Tchaikovsky was quickly captivated by it, in September conferring with both Vsevolozhsky and Marius Petipa (today remembered as one of ballet's legendary choreographers), during which everything was worked out down to the finest detail. Tchaikovsky's excitement was such that in October he could not resist making a start on the music, though it was only in January 1889 that he could begin composition in earnest. Yet in little more than a fortnight a very substantial part of the ballet was sketched. … The scoring, however, took much longer than that of Swan Lake, for Tchaikovsky now wanted his music to be presented with much more variety of colour and texture than in the earlier ballet. … Though The Sleeping Beauty has never been able to match the popularity of Swan Lake, it is arguably (dare I say it?) the finer piece" (p. 348).