20 | The Sleeping Beauty 2021 The Sleeping Beauty 2021 | 21

Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyComposer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a name familiar to any classical ballet enthusiast, was born in

1840 in Votkinsk, a small town in the Russian Empire.

As a composer of ballets, Tchaikovsky was not an initial success. His first, Swan Lake

(1875) was met with little enthusiasm. Despite this

setback, he didn’t hesitate to accept a commission

from Ivan Alexandrovitch Vsevolozhsky, Director of

the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg to compose for

The Sleeping Beauty (1889).

Following the success of The Sleeping Beauty he went on to compose The Nutcracker

(1892).

Jessica GethinConductor

Australian born conductor Jessica Gethin has been hailed by audiences and

critics for her stellar musicianship, vibrant energy

and charismatic stage presence.

She has forged an impressive international conducting

career working in the United States, Asia, Australia and

New Zealand, including performances with Dallas

Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian

Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic

Orchestra, Perth Symphony, Singapore Symphony,

Auckland Philharmonic, Macao Orchestra and

the West Australian Ballet, crossing genres of

symphonic, ballet, opera, film and contemporary music.

Accolades include being listed in Limelight Australia’s

Top Twenty Australian Artists, winner of the

Brian Stacey Australian Conductor Award, AFR’s

100 Most Influential Women, a Churchill Fellowship and

being named a finalist in the West Australian of the Year Awards. Jessica was founding conductor of the

Perth Symphony until 2019, as well as Inaugural Fellow at

the Hart Institute of Women Conductors with the

Dallas Opera.

Music and Character Leitmotif, German Leitmotiv (“leading motive”), a recurring musical theme appearing usually in operas but also in symphonic poems. It is used to reinforce the dramatic action, to provide psychological insight into the characters, and to recall or suggest to the listener extramusical ideas relevant to the dramatic event. from The Encyclopaedia Britannica

The leading example of the use of leitmotif in music is Richard Wagner’s mammoth opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876), which uses specific melodic ideas to represent a variety of characters, symbolic objects, and thematic material. In the early 20th Century, the silent movie genre would be accompanied by a pianist, where even a simple chord could instantly convey the sense of the drama appearing on screen. More recently, two low notes, a semitone apart, can still strike terror into the hearts of moviegoers – instantly recognisable as the theme from Jaws.

Composers do not always approach their work with a narrative in mind. For those that do, however, the language of music is rich in rhetoric and symbolism that the listener can easily translate, and respond to. But are these always an example of leitmotif, i.e. a fragmentary musical idea (motif) that represents something concrete in a narrative?

In ballet, one would expect the idea of leitmotif to be common; after all, isn’t the function of the music to articulate the narrative of the choreography? Or at the very least, to support it? Generally, yes. Most famously, the first three notes of the “She loves me, she loves me not” theme in Act 1 of Giselle is an example of leitmotif that is then developed in that scene, recurring in Giselle’s bitter recollection of that moment during the infamous “Mad Scene”, and repeated again when she dances as one of the Wilis. In Swan Lake, the haunting oboe theme is simply that – a theme, although no less recognisable or lacking in narrative!

The leitmotifs occurring within The Sleeping Beauty are primarily concerned with love vs. fear – represented by the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse – and run throughout the ballet, creating a constant reminder of this universal conflict. The music for the final Act, the wedding celebration of Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré, also contains many allusions to the characters being portrayed. For instance: the perky flute tune of the “Bluebird” Variation; the slightly sinister opening chords of the “Red-Riding-Hood & the Wolf” Variation; and the falling slide of the cor anglais, clearly a cat’s meow in the “Puss-in-Boots” Variation.

The distinction between theme and leitmotif is something that the few interested in such subtleties will continue to discuss, whilst the rest of us continue to simply enjoy the effect that music has on us, the way it plays on our emotions, speaks to our hearts, creates pictures and tells a story that, at least for this production, will end happily ever after.

Written by Michael Brett, Head of Music