The chief
good fairy (the
Fée des Lilas) in
ballet of The
Sleeping Beauty. It is she who awakens the sleepers. The role was created by
Maria Petipa, daughter of its choreographer
Marius Petipa, in 1890.
At the gala reopening of Covent Garden Opera House at the end of 1999, after two years of closure, the Queen attended the concert featuring Plácido Domingo, Sylvie Guillem, and so on, but did not officially reopen the Opera House. Instead the Lilac Fairy danced the Rose Adagio to reawaken the House. This moves me to tears whenever I think about it.