Nick Mamatas recently coined a term that seems to perfectly describe Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty as I reviewed it: “fantatwee — a portmanteau of twee and fantasy.”

Mamatas defines one of the major categories of ‘fantatwee’ as the unreconstructed fairy-tale. Now, Tchaikovsky, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky should probably be forgiven for failing, way back in 1889, to apply the techniques of postmodern literary criticism to Charles Perrault’s story. But The Sleeping Beauty isn’t just unreconstructed; to the original edifice they’ve added an extension with an en suite bedroom, patio, media room and wine cellar.

But, hey! The interest of many of The Sleeping Beauty’s audience nowadays is in recapturing the joy of ballet that they knew in childhood. ‘Fantatwee’ may be just what they are looking for.