Royal Opera House: The Sleeping Beauty

At a royal christening a bitter fairy, Carabosse, lashes out after being excluded and lays a dark fate on the newborn Princess Aurora, warning that she will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The Lilac Fairy softens that doom, changing the sentence to a deep, enchanted sleep that can only be ended by a prince's kiss. The film follows Aurora as she grows under the watchful care of the court, with the threat of the spindle always looming and the relationships around her shaping what will come. The story is told entirely through dance and music, keeping the ending unspoiled while focusing on ritual, ritualized grace, and the rituals of court life.

Directed by Ross MacGibbon, this 2020 release records The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House for the Live Cinema Season 2019/20. The staging pulls heavily from Marius Petipa's 19th-century choreography and includes sequences created for The Royal Ballet by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell, and Christopher Wheeldon.

The filmed production emphasizes classical technique, formal pageantry, and the social codes of the fairy-tale court, with themes of fate, protection, and romantic rescue running throughout. Viewers on one platform have given it a 7.0/10 vote average; responses often single out the leads and the clarity of the dancing, along with the sumptuous period costuming and set design.

As a Live Cinema event that later screened online under the Royal Opera House's #OurHousetoYourHouse program, this production reached audiences who couldn’t attend the theater, helping sustain interest in live ballet during restricted times. Iconic moments, including the Rose Adagio and the grand court divertissements, are presented in high-definition, making familiar sequences accessible to new viewers and ballet fans alike.

This title was distributed primarily as a live cinema transmission and through encore online broadcasts rather than a standard box office release, so traditional theatrical gross figures are not applicable.