Viktorina Kapitonova lights up Boston Ballet’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’

In 1993, Boston Ballet debuted a production of “The Sleeping Beauty” it had bought from the Royal Ballet, with French Baroque sets and costumes by David Walker. Thirty-three years later, that production is on its 10th outing and still going strong. Opening night Thursday at the Citizens Opera House, Viktorina Kapitonova was a showstopper in the title role. Tickets will be hard to come by for the remaining 11 performances.

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Princess Aurora doesn’t come on till Act 1, and Prince Désiré doesn’t appear till Act 2, but you wouldn’t want to miss the Prologue, where the Lilac Fairy and her entourage are guests at baby Aurora’s christening. Thursday’s audience applauded as soon as the curtain rose, in appreciation of Walker’s royal pageantry. There’s humor and a bit of social commentary here. Master of ceremonies Catalabutte (Lawrence Rines Munro on Thursday) accepts the assurance of an underling that the guest list is complete; the King (Alexander Nicolosi) accepts the assurance of Catalabutte. When uninvited “bad fairy” Carabosse (María Álvarez) arrives in a hail of thunder and lightning and demands an explanation from the Queen (Lauren Herfindahl), she points a finger at her husband, and he does the same to the hapless Catalabutte. Then there’s Carabosse’s christening gift, a spindle; it flummoxes the King and Queen, who are clearly unacquainted with the concept of work.

Álvarez stole the show Thursday, her domineering Carabosse full of malevolent glee and malicious mimicry. Lilac Fairy Lia Cirio wasn’t at her best in the difficult Italian fouettés of her variation, but she brought the requisite serene authority to her face-off with Carabosse. Her entourage shone: Alainah Grace Reidy as a seductive, teasing Crystal Fountain Fairy; Sage Humphries giving control and amplitude to Enchanted Garden; Emma Topalova walking on pointe with hypnotic precision as Woodland Glade; Alexis Workowski chirpy and ebullient as Songbird; Haley Schwan a commanding, dramatic Golden Vine. The six fairy cavaliers served up a nice set of synchronized double tours; the eight Lilac Fairy attendants, when they weren’t dodging Carabosse’s Goya-nightmare cohort, did full justice to Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous score.

The Garland Dance at the beginning of Act 1 drew applause even before it started, testimony to the beauty of Marius Petipa’s patterning. The rest of the act belonged to Kapitonova; I can’t recall a better Aurora. Regal and confident as she arrived at her birthday celebration, knowing rather than naive, she radiated unbounded joy as she greeted her parents and then gave flirtatious encouragement to each of her four prince suitors. Everything about her was soft, easy, elegant, graceful; the nuances of her phrasing were such that at times she elevated the music to another level. The Rose Adagio, where Aurora balances on pointe as she’s supported by each prince in turn, posed no problem.

Act 2 brought Sangmin Lee as Désiré. He conveyed the right sense of wistful yearning as the hunting party assembled, and he met the hopeful solicitations of Schwan’s Countess with a gracious reserve. But once the party had dispersed, he struggled to connect the poetic points of his meditative solo, and then in the vision scene he was still reserved. Most Auroras dance the vision scene in a trance, as if part of Désiré’s dream; it’s a natural interpretation. Kapitonova, however, was very much aware of Lee, and looking for a connection that he didn’t quite make. All the same, one couldn’t fault his supportive partnering.

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The wedding divertissements of Act 3 kicked off with a buoyant pas de trois from Evelina Godunova, Madoka Sugai, and Patrick Yocum, Sugai the standout here. The endearing antics of the White Cat (Emily Aston) with Puss in Boots (Tyson Ali Clark) and then Little Red Riding Hood (Abigail Merlis) with the Wolf (SeokJoo Kim) provided comic relief. Reprising her Princess Florine from 2023, Chisako Oga flitted light as a feather alongside a slightly less crisp Yue Shi as her Bluebird. In the Grand Pas de Deux, Lee came into his own with high-flying cabrioles, double tours landed in fifth, creditable tours à la seconde, and a zippy manège. In Aurora’s solo variation, again, it seemed almost as if the music were taking its cue from Kapitonova rather than the other way around.

The lighting this time out felt dimmer than I remember. And some of the tempos from music director Mischa Santora and the Boston Ballet Orchestra seemed slowish, though Thursday’s performance, at just under three hours, ran no longer than usual. Few ballets pack as much into three hours; this one has more than 150 roles, from the supernumerary courtiers to the fairies and their cavaliers, Aurora’s friends, the visiting princes, the hunting royals, the peasants, the vision nymphs, the mazurka dancers, the fairy-tale characters. One strength of Boston Ballet has always been that even the least of these roles are danced with commitment. This “Sleeping Beauty” is a fitting finale to what has been one of the company’s best seasons.

Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at [email protected].

‘The Sleeping Beauty’

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Choreography by Marius Petipa; additional choreography by Frederick Ashton. Staging by Ninette de Valois. Sets and costumes, David Walker. With the Boston Ballet Orchestra conducted by Mischa Santora. Presented by Boston Ballet. At: Citizens Opera House, through June 7. Tickets: $36-$259. 617-695-6955, www.bostonballet.org

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