The myth of Prince Charming, which brings beauty back to life, carries within it the fantasies and symbols that nourish the universal imagination of amorous encounters, ordinary and wonderful, unreal and expected. But who really is this Prince Charming?
A major figure in the great classical ballets, the prince is represented there by a unique reference: he is a man, handsome, dazzling and tender, and delivers and marries the princess.
The power of our dreams and desires, however, offers many other options. Confusion of genres and appearances, truth of bodies, deceptive and deceived hopes, the ordinary and imperfect heroes of this piece defy the aesthetic codes of the Ballet for an uninhibited questioning of ‘Prince Charming’.
And by the way… when he ends his score of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by taking up the old song “Vive Henri IV!” Which charming princes did Tchaikovsky have in mind: a delicate Adonis or a bearish boor from Bearn with fetid breath?