Just watched Matthew Bourne’s innovative The Sleeping...

Just watched Matthew Bourne’s innovative The Sleeping Beauty: imaginative choreography, fine dancing, spectacular costumes. The PBS program also included an interesting interview with the director, who admitted that the old story of the princess who awakens at the kiss of a prince made little sense to him.

Bourne has substituted a pre-hundred sleep romance for Princess Aurora, who awakens to the kiss of her true love, a one time gamekeeper back at the castle. Perfect sense to a modern viewer. But back in the day, the older story made sense, too. The key requirement for a princess’s spouse was not true love but reasons of state, and it was vital that the kiss come from a bona fide royal.