Jen decided at the last minute that she wanted to check out the ballet. Well, actually, a ballet has been on her to do list for quite some time but she has only just finished planning her trips away so tonight was the perfect opportunity to check something out at the Royal Opera House.

The only other time I’ve seen a proper ballet was when I went to Russia last year for Christmas. The ballet we saw there, whilst amazing, was a mixture of set pieces so I couldn’t turn down the chance to see a ballet which actually had a story that we could follow from start to finish. It also helps that I was well familiar with Sleeping Beauty fairytale.

The Royal Opera House is HUGE and tickets are commensurately HUGELY expensive. Still the price was worth it because the ballet was simply beautiful, not to mention long. At three hours including two intervals I was surprised I wasn’t more restless throughout the performance. And that’s because it was simply enchanting with gorgeous backdrops, grand stage props, beautiful costumes, a very expressive orchestra and of course the ballerinas (male and female as I’m not sure what a male ballerina is called) were truly graceful. You can see why little girls (and some little boys :)) want to grow up to be ballerinas. Oh, and their legs were great!

I don’t know enough about ballet to critically evaluate tonight’s performance so I can only speak for myself when I say I was truly captivated. It would seem I wasn’t the only one to feel that way either as the applause went on for what felt like hours (but was probably about 20-25 minutes!)

A great way to experience the tale of Sleeping Beauty.