As such, Semenzato’s Carabosse looms large, literally, a towering form of darkness. Having not been invited, to the christening, they are slighted, and how. Carried aloft, Semenzato transforms himself into a mountain with the aid of Carabosse’s impossibly long cloak. Carabosse’s cloak is rarely worn, rather it is always in the service of consuming Carabosse. It hangs, pools, engulfs. Larger than life. And Carabosse is a long-haired shapeshifter, whose hair is a whip. Befittingly, their arrival signals not just a change in the score, but to the kingdom’s very sky. The world is ablaze. A sepia wash eats at the colour and reminds me of the thick haze of bushfire smoke, when skies overhead glow orange with warning. For her choreographic debut, in 1987, Haydée wanted her Carabosse to be the only character absorbed by the colour black; “a magician, . . . an outsider,” every element ensuring they can “never truly belong among the others.”[2]

By keeping the set confined to the one view, the passage of time is also clearly denoted. The potted Prologue roses have become overgrown and cover the arcading in the autumnal second act. For the jubilation of the third act, Aurora’s wedding, order is once more restored, but the garden is now in full flower and the evening is ripe for a procession of characters from Red Riding Hood to a newcomer, Ali Baba and four jewels, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Amethyst (four of the aforementioned Fairies who transfigure during interval). The “enclosed, almost square horizon, without side entrances” further suggests the story book, and the “light comes only from above and from the sides.”[3] To the autumn gloaming, I see the sun prepare to duck beneath the covers, as the forest beyond gradually becomes a silhouette. Seated for the wedding, lighting by Dieter Billino suggestive of a heady summer’s eve, picks out the iridescent, feathery blue hues in the Bluebird and the Bluebird Princess, Ferlito Riccardo and Sawano. They flit, alight, as divertissements ought, perching momentarily on a beam of light.