HOWZAT

As for the costumes — about 400 in all — Farmer has been busy redesigning them. “The original designs have not aged well; they look dated, a bit theatre camp. That’s partly because Oliver tended to design fancy-dress costumes. But I have tried to give the flavour of Oliver in my costumes, and I have kept the iconic ones, like the costume Fonteyn wore.”

Like the sets, the choreography was well documented, and there was plenty of source material for Newton to work with. “We had access to film taken of the company dancing Sleeping Beauty on tour in America,” he says. “But I almost didn’t need it. The ballet is ingrained in my memory; I must have done hundreds of performances of Sleeping Beauty in America. And it’s not just me, lots of people remember it.”

Newton appreciates the ambition of Messel’s staging — its regality, formality and grandeur — but “it’s not enough to reproduce the past. One has to look at it from today’s point of view.

“In the end, we wanted to give the company a beautiful 75th birthday present. It’s been a long time since the Royal Ballet had a Sleeping Beauty that shows the company off to its best advantage. I hope this will do it.”

The Sleeping Beauty opens at Covent Garden (020-7304 4000), on May 15

A Royal progress to the Garden

1931 The company, then known as the Vic-Wells Ballet, makes its debut at Sadler’s Wells

1935 Frederick Ashton becomes resident choreographer

1946 As Sadler’s Wells Ballet, reopens the Royal Opera House with Sleeping Beauty

1949 First North American visit; Margot Fonteyn becomes an international star

1956 Royal charter granted

1962 Birth of the legendary partnership between Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev

1989 Sylvie Guillem joins the Royal Ballet

2001 Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, dies at 102