Technical Details: Interactive Menu Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1/ Digital Stereo Region Code: 0 Picture Format: 4:3 Specials: Artist Biographies Production Info   Running Time: ca. 130 min. Order No: 60064 P.I. Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty Orchestra: The Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra Ballet: The Australian Ballet Company Soloists: C. Walsh, D. Ashmole, J. Michel, A. Toy a.o. Conductor: Barry Wordsworth “Beauty is a kiss of life...nothing short of a masterpiece...a visually & artistically memorable experience... this Sleeping Beauty could hardly be topped!”                        (The Sun) A new production of Sleeping Beauty for the Australian Ballet was staged in 1984 by the artistic director Maina Gielgud for the first time. The choreography was credited to 'Marius Petipa, reproduced by Monica Parker from the Nicholas Sergeyev notation, with additional choreography by Maina Gielgud', and described by Gielgud in the program notes as 'as close to the Petipa original as it is possible for it to be, nearly a century after its St. Petersburg premiere'. Christine Walsh and David Ashmole danced the first night leads and so did they in the “shrinked” version staged in Melbourne in 1993 and documented on the DVD in hand. The original design and costumes drew on French Rococo style and were of such grand proportions that the Opera House stage was unable to accommodate the set. This spectacular production has been hailed as a visual and artistic masterpiece. It is the magical tale of the beautiful Princess Aurora, condemned to sleep for one hundred years under a spell of a wicked fairy. Choreographically The Sleeping Beauty is rich in many different styles, authentic court dances, elements of romantic ballet, classical ballet technique and abstraction, mimed scenes, grand processions, character and folk dances. The Sleeping Beauty is at the same time both an homage to French dance of the 17th and 18th centuries and an anticipation of trends that would lead into the 20th century.