La bella dormente nel bosco

Ottorino Respighi

On a starry night by a small lake, the king’s ambassador announces the birth of his daughter, the princess, and invites the fairies to her christening. All of them, except the Green Fairy. Enraged, she appears during the ceremony in a cloud of fire and smoke before casting a terrible curse on the infant: at the age of 20, she will prick her finger on a spindle and fall asleep forever … Does this story sound familiar to you? Based on the plot of Sleeping Beauty, Ottorino Respighi’s opera for marionettes places the world of fairy tales against reality. Here, all the characters are trapped in their roles, enchantment is illusory and the prince is not that charming after all.

For their graduation performance, the members of the La Monnaie Choral Academy will be performing this rare gem of the Italian repertoire, presented here as a coming-of-age story about how children perceive the world of adults. At the heart of a minimalist and dreamlike scenography, a tabletop marionette will allow the audience to explore all the princess’s states of mind. Respighi’s sparkling score will come to live in a piano reduction, performed by Emmanuelle Turbelin.