{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O110423"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O110423/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML3614/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML3614/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020ML3614","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MC2898","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O110423","accessionNumber":"S.1553&A-1982","objectType":"Theatre costume","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Costume for the Fairy of the Woodland Glades worn by Diana Vere in Marius Petipa's ballet <i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> performed by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This a slightly revised version of the production which re-opened the Royal Opera House after the War on 20th February 1946 and marked the establishment of the ballet company in the theatre.   \r\nThe music for the ballet was composed by Tchaikovsky, and the scenery and costumes were designed by Oliver Messel.  The ballet had originally been performed by the Imperial Russian Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg in 1890.\r\nThe 1946 production, mounted by Ninette de Valois, was based on the 1939 Sadler's Wells Ballet production staged for the company by Nicolai Sergueeff, the former regisseur of the Russian Imperial Ballet.  The production also included additional new choreography by Frederick Ashton, and the first cast included Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, & Beryl Grey. The production underwent various modifications over the twenty years that the production remained in the repertory.  A smaller version of the ballet was produced for the Royal Ballet Touring Company at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, 14th September 1959.  A later refurbishment of the production was first performed by The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on 10th June 1960.\r\n<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> is a key production in the history of the Royal Ballet.  The mounting of the greatest of the Russian classics in 1939 by an English company not ten years old was presumption in the extreme, but it was possible because Ninette de Valois recognized a potential Aurora in Margot Fonteyn.  She went on to dance the role over fifty times during the War.  Oliver Messel's vision of the ballet has overshadowed almost all subsequent attempts to stage it and adaptations of his designs   \r\nDiana Vere (1942 – 2018) who wore this costume was a British dancer born in Trinidad. She studied at Elmhurst and the Royal Ballet School joining The Royal Ballet in 1962 being promoted to dance as a Principal in 1970 – 74. The V&A holds several costumes she wore. She was dancing the role of the Fairy of the Woodland Glades in 1966.\r\n\n<i>The Sleeping Beauty</i> was Oliver Messel's biggest and most enduring production (it was always known as the Messel Production, even though he was concerned only with the designs, and not the actual mounting of the ballet).  For the initial Sadler's Wells Ballet staging in 1946 he was said to have designed two hundred and eight costumes, as well as four sets, gauzes and drop curtains.  Allowing for remakes in 1952, 1959 and 1960 and the endless making of costumes for different casts, there must have been well over one thousand costumes made between the first performance in 1946 and the last by the Touring Company in 1970.  The production was performed nearly one thousand one hundred and fifty times, from London to Los Angeles, from Leeds to Leningrad, becoming the Company's 'signature ballet'.  And its reputation has bedevilled every attempt by the Royal Ballet (as Sadler's Wells Ballet became in 1959) to redesign it ever since.\r\nNot that the production was without its critics, and almost imperceptible, but significant, changes began at once.  The first casualties were the 'lethal hats' (in P.W. Manchester's phrase) worn by several of the leading characters, and Aurora's sleeves in Act I became narrower and narrower over the years, the dancers feeling that the original full sleeves destroyed the line of their arms.  Head-dresses seem to have always been subject to variation, certainly for the ballerinas, and it was generally felt that the original ones were too top heavy and spoiled the line of the head; over the years they gradually shrank to miniature versions of what they had once been.  The actual shape and decoration of the tutus was subject to change over the years.  The original costumes were certainly over-fussy in decoration, and this was reduced in time.  After the 1952 remake Lionel Bradley recorded in his Diary that 'the fairies in the Prologue now have the fashionable horizontal tutu and the decorations...seemed simpler and 'harder'.'  The line of the tutus and their decoration were to continue over the years.\r\nFabrics too changed.  The first production was hampered by post-war austerity and the restricted range of fabrics available; the first remake was more sumptuous, though, as fabrics improved, the colours became, surprisingly, less subtle.\r\nThe production always had a particular hold on the American public and, in 1976, six years after the last performance by the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre asked Messel to reproduce his designs for their first production of the full-length ballet.  It would appear that that the costume-makers worked from a set of designs, some from the original 1946 production (the fabric samples attached to the design for a Nymph in Act 2 must date from the American remake, as many of these materials would not have been available in the 1950s), and some later re-drawings.  But the final result was surprisingly unlike the Royal Ballet production - the spirit seemed to have departed.  The line of the costumes had become even harder, the now scanty decoration no longer seemed an integral part of the costume.  Although Messel declared himself satisfied with the result, those who remembered the earlier staging were to be deeply disappointed.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Costume for the Fairy of the Woodland Glades worn by Diana Vere. This is a white tutu in the 'English' style. The bodice is heavily decorated with green leaves and brown tendrils. The overskirt of the tutu is decorated with fewer leaves and tendrils and with five white blue and gold flowers","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"costume designers","id":"AAT163428"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"sewing","id":"AAT53658"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Costumes","id":"THES269529"},{"text":"Entertainment and leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Fairy tales and legends","id":"THES263583"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2020ML3614","2019MC2898"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES343114"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES343262"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Theatre costume","id":""}],[{"text":"dance costume","id":"x34504"}],[{"text":"Tutu","id":""}],[{"text":"Theatre costume","id":""}],[{"text":"dance costume","id":"x34504"}],[{"text":"Headdress","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1960","earliest":"1955-01-01","latest":"1964-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Royal Academy of Dance","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"94.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"box","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"20","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"box","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"95","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approximately","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"box","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Given to the V&A by the Royal Academy of Dance with the collection of costumes from the ROH used by Ballet For All","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Costume for the Fairy of the Woodland Glades based on the 1946 design by Oliver Messel and worn by Diana Vere in 'The Sleeping Beauty', performed by The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London mid-1960s.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Messel, Oliver","id":"N4016"},{"text":"Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich","id":"N1167"},{"text":"Petipa, Marius","id":"N3973"},{"text":"de Valois, Ninette (Dame)","id":"N4395"},{"text":"Ashton, Frederick William Mallandaine (Sir)","id":"N1312"},{"text":"Sergeyev, Nicholas","id":"N4402"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"fairy","id":"x34800"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Sleeping Beauty"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.1553-1982","S.1553A-1982"],"accessionNumberNum":"1553","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":1982,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Theatre costume [1]","Theatre costume [2]"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-16","recordCreationDate":"2005-03-17","availableToBook":true}}