The Boston Globe, May 1st, 2005
Most people think of "The Sleeping Beauty" as a romantic fairy tale, with its lilting Tchaikovsky score and plot centered on a beautiful princess coming of age. But it's also one of a long line of propaganda ballets, a genre that goes all the way back to Louis XIV, called "The Sun King" because of his frequent performances in 17th- century court ballets in the role of Apollo. Assuming the part gave him an allegorical link to a god. Two centuries later, "Beauty" was created to link Russia's Czar Alexander III with Louis, who was still the model of autocratic rule, and to reinforce the authority...
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