By Keith Kreitman

Ballet review

With each production, Mark Foehringer’s Western Ballet, the resident company at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, rises to greater heights. It has clearly become a formidable presence on the San Francisco Bay Area ballet scene.

The weekend of June 8, Western Ballet presented Peter Tchaikovsky’s greatest ballet, “Sleeping Beauty.” It proved to be the company’s most ambitious production yet, one which edged over into perfection.

The costumes were gorgeous, the sets by Peter Crompton were richly colorful and the melodies of Tchaikovsky were impossibly beautiful.

“Sleeping Beauty” is the story of Princess Aurora, who has a curse of death put on her by wicked fairy Carabosse. Outraged at not being on the guest list for the celebration of the infant’s birth, the fairy curses the newly born princess to die on her 16th birthday. The severity of the curse is mitigated by the good Lilac Fairy who reduces the consequences to a sleep from which the Princess will be awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince.

Gliding upon Tchaikovsky’s richly romantic orchestrations - with choreography by Alessandra di Pierro - was a cast of Foehringer regulars. They were augmented by other equally talented dancers and several stunning principals who made the three-hour production pass too quickly.

The stunners were Katherine Wells and Brittney Wirth, two Bay Area ballerinas who alternate as Princess Aurora and the Lilac Fairy. Both are lissome figures on the boards who dominate with their presence.

Leading the masculine charges were regulars Ben Barnhart, Michael Howerton, David Kato and Matt Kovac, with John DeSerio and Brian Fisher enlisted as worthy additions to the pack.

Lee Bell, as Prince Florimund, whose kiss brings Princess Aurora back to life, engages in show-stopping solos and pas de deuxs with the awakened princess.

Foehringer himself carried the role of evil fairy Carabosse, with somber and menacing distinction.

Young Western Ballet student Anthony Lomuljo again demonstrates his developing talent as The Wolf in the wedding sequence.