1995 Russian Federation 100-Roubles “Sleep Beauty Ballet” Silver Proof Coin, 100 mm 1.111 Kilo Mintage < 1'000
1995 Russian Federation 100-Roubles Bolshoi Theatre “Sleep Beauty Ballet” Pure Silver Massively Large Coin, 100 mm 1.111 Kilo Only 1’000 Mintage. Leningrad Mint.
This is a rather outstanding piece with great eye-appeal given its enormous size of 10 cm across. It is rather heavy weighting of more than a kilogram (1’111 grams) and pied-fort thickness of 1.5 cm gives this coin a very strong and good feeling in hand. The theme is of traditional Russian Federation Bolshoi Theatre’s award winning The Sleeping Beauty Ballet. The Mintage is extremely low at only 1’000 pieces minted by the Leningrad Mint making the piece relatively scarce.
This will definitely make a fantastic addition to any proud collection.
Country. Russian Federation
- Obverse:
In the center - the inscription "БАНК РОССИИ" (BANK OF RUSSIA), divided by the two-headed eagle designed by artist I. Bilibin, above - the building of the Bolshoi Theatre, at the top - the inscription along the rim: "БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕАТР" (BOLSHOI THEATRE), at the bottom to the left - the designation of the metal sign, the fineness and the fine metal content, to the right - the mint trademarkt and the mint year "1995". Below - the semicircular inscription along the rim in two lines: «100 РУБЛЕЙ» (100 RUBLES).
- Lettering:
БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕАТР
БАНК РОССИИ
Ag 900 1 кг ЛМД 1995
100
РУБЛЕЙ
- Translation:
BOLSHOI THEATRE
Bank of Russia
1 Kg LMD
100 Rubles
- Reverse:
A scene from the ball in the final act of the ballet, below - a floral ornament, from left to right - the inscription along the rim: «СПЯЩАЯ КРАСАВИЦА» (THE SLEEPING BEAUTY).
- Lettering: СПЯЩАЯ КРАСАВИЦА
- Translation: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
- Comments:
The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (his opus 66). The score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant. The choreographer of the original production was Marius Petipa.
The premiere performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890. The work has become one of the classical repertoire's most famous ballets.
Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on 25 May 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation on the subject of the story of Undine. It was later decided that Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would compose the music for the ballet. Tchaikovsky did not hesitate to accept the commission, although he was aware that his only previous ballet, Swan Lake, met with little enthusiasm at that stage of his career.
Tchaikovsky based his work on Brothers Grimm's version of Perrault's 'Dornröschen'. In that version, the Princess's parents survive the 100-year sleep to celebrate the Princess's wedding with the Prince. However, Vsevolozhsky incorporated Perrault's other characters from his stories into the ballet, such as Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Bluebird, Bluebeard, Ricky of the Tuft and Tom Thumb. Other French fairy tale characters to be featured are Beauty and the Beast, Pretty Goldilocks and The White Cat. Regardless, Tchaikovsky was happy to inform the Director of the Imperial Theatre that he had great pleasure studying the work and came away with adequate inspiration to do it justice.[citation needed]
The choreographer was Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Ballet, who wrote a very detailed list of instructions as to the musical requirements. Tchaikovsky worked quickly on the new work at Frolovskoye; he began initial sketches in the winter of 1888 and began orchestration on the work on 30 May 1889.
The ballet's focus was undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse); each has a leitmotif representing them, which run through the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Act III of the work, however, takes a complete break from the two motifs and instead places focus on the individual characters of the various court dances.
The ballet's premiere received more favorable accolades than Swan Lake from the press but Tchaikovsky never had the luxury of being able to witness his work become an instant success in theatres outside of Russia. He died in 1893. By 1903, The Sleeping Beauty was the second most popular ballet in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet (the Petipa/Pugni The Pharaoh's Daughter was first), having been performed 200 times in only 10 years.
Original cast members costumed for Act I. At center is Carlotta Brianza as Aurora. Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1890
A production mounted at the La Scala in Milan did not arouse much interest and it was not until 1921 that, in London, the ballet finally gained wide acclaim and eventually a permanent place in the classical repertoire. In 1999, the Mariinsky Ballet reconstructed the original 1899 production, including reproductions of the original sets and costumes. Although the 1951 Kirov production by Konstantin Sergeyev is available on DVD/Video, the 1999 "authentic" version was never commercially released.
The Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovsky's longest ballet, lasting nearly four hours at full length (counting the intermissions). The complete score runs practically 3 hours. It is nearly always cut.
At the premiere, Tsar Alexander III summoned Tchaikovsky to the imperial box. The Tsar made the simple remark 'Very nice,' which seemed to have irritated Tchaikovsky, who had likely expected a more favorable response.
This is a rather outstanding piece with great eye-appeal given its enormous size of 10 cm across. It is rather heavy weighting of more than a kilogram (1’111 grams) and pied-fort thickness of 1.5 cm gives this coin a very strong and good feeling in hand. The theme is of traditional Russian Federation Bolshoi Theatre’s award winning The Sleeping Beauty Ballet. The Mintage is extremely low at only 1’000 pieces minted by the Leningrad Mint making the piece relatively scarce.
This will definitely make a fantastic addition to any proud collection.
Country. Russian Federation
- Year. 1995
- Value. 100 Rubles
- Composition. Silver (.900)
- Weight. 1,111.12 g
- Diameter. 100 mm
- Thickness. 15 mm
- Series: Russian Ballet
- Obverse:
In the center - the inscription "БАНК РОССИИ" (BANK OF RUSSIA), divided by the two-headed eagle designed by artist I. Bilibin, above - the building of the Bolshoi Theatre, at the top - the inscription along the rim: "БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕАТР" (BOLSHOI THEATRE), at the bottom to the left - the designation of the metal sign, the fineness and the fine metal content, to the right - the mint trademarkt and the mint year "1995". Below - the semicircular inscription along the rim in two lines: «100 РУБЛЕЙ» (100 RUBLES).
- Lettering:
БОЛЬШОЙ ТЕАТР
БАНК РОССИИ
Ag 900 1 кг ЛМД 1995
100
РУБЛЕЙ
- Translation:
BOLSHOI THEATRE
Bank of Russia
1 Kg LMD
100 Rubles
- Reverse:
A scene from the ball in the final act of the ballet, below - a floral ornament, from left to right - the inscription along the rim: «СПЯЩАЯ КРАСАВИЦА» (THE SLEEPING BEAUTY).
- Lettering: СПЯЩАЯ КРАСАВИЦА
- Translation: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
- Comments:
The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (his opus 66). The score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant. The choreographer of the original production was Marius Petipa.
The premiere performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890. The work has become one of the classical repertoire's most famous ballets.
Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on 25 May 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation on the subject of the story of Undine. It was later decided that Charles Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would compose the music for the ballet. Tchaikovsky did not hesitate to accept the commission, although he was aware that his only previous ballet, Swan Lake, met with little enthusiasm at that stage of his career.
Tchaikovsky based his work on Brothers Grimm's version of Perrault's 'Dornröschen'. In that version, the Princess's parents survive the 100-year sleep to celebrate the Princess's wedding with the Prince. However, Vsevolozhsky incorporated Perrault's other characters from his stories into the ballet, such as Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Bluebird, Bluebeard, Ricky of the Tuft and Tom Thumb. Other French fairy tale characters to be featured are Beauty and the Beast, Pretty Goldilocks and The White Cat. Regardless, Tchaikovsky was happy to inform the Director of the Imperial Theatre that he had great pleasure studying the work and came away with adequate inspiration to do it justice.[citation needed]
The choreographer was Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Ballet, who wrote a very detailed list of instructions as to the musical requirements. Tchaikovsky worked quickly on the new work at Frolovskoye; he began initial sketches in the winter of 1888 and began orchestration on the work on 30 May 1889.
The ballet's focus was undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse); each has a leitmotif representing them, which run through the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Act III of the work, however, takes a complete break from the two motifs and instead places focus on the individual characters of the various court dances.
The ballet's premiere received more favorable accolades than Swan Lake from the press but Tchaikovsky never had the luxury of being able to witness his work become an instant success in theatres outside of Russia. He died in 1893. By 1903, The Sleeping Beauty was the second most popular ballet in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet (the Petipa/Pugni The Pharaoh's Daughter was first), having been performed 200 times in only 10 years.
Original cast members costumed for Act I. At center is Carlotta Brianza as Aurora. Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1890
A production mounted at the La Scala in Milan did not arouse much interest and it was not until 1921 that, in London, the ballet finally gained wide acclaim and eventually a permanent place in the classical repertoire. In 1999, the Mariinsky Ballet reconstructed the original 1899 production, including reproductions of the original sets and costumes. Although the 1951 Kirov production by Konstantin Sergeyev is available on DVD/Video, the 1999 "authentic" version was never commercially released.
The Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovsky's longest ballet, lasting nearly four hours at full length (counting the intermissions). The complete score runs practically 3 hours. It is nearly always cut.
At the premiere, Tsar Alexander III summoned Tchaikovsky to the imperial box. The Tsar made the simple remark 'Very nice,' which seemed to have irritated Tchaikovsky, who had likely expected a more favorable response.
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