Ryan Wenzel

Boston Ballet in the Prologue of “The Sleeping Beauty.” Photograph by Rosalie O’Connor

The classic 19th-century story ballets are difficult to pin down. As a newcomer to dance, one can see a number of productions of, say, The Sleeping Beauty — all, according to playbills, with choreography “after Marius Petipa” — and be unsure which steps are the Russian master’s and which have been added or altered. Crucial variations in structure, costumes, and décor complicate matters further. It can seem impossible to know the ballet, much less whether one likes it.

I, for one, was unaware how enjoyable this 123-year-old work could be — though it’s widely considered the pinnacle of classical ballet — until a matinee performance of Boston Ballet’s current production, only the third I’ve seen live. Now I’m nearly obsessed. Although the quality of the dancing varied that afternoon, the experience on the whole far surpassed those I’ve had watching technically superior performers in New York. The Boston production fuses music, dancing, costumes, and décor in a way that feels lavishly grand and completely right. At two hours and 40 minutes, it’s longer than the others I’ve seen, but it doesn’t lag for a moment.

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