The idea of creating a ballet on this subject was proposed by the Director of the Russian Imperial Theaters Ivan Vsevolozhsky. He created the libretto of the ballet together with the famous ballet master Marius Petipa. Vsevolozhsky used only the first part of Perrault's tale for the plot. He omitted the long part on the later fate of Aurora, Prince Désiré, and his evil stepmother. Vsevolozhsky and Petipa did not change the plot of the story. They just changed its style, turning the moral and instructive story into a magic and stunning performance.
The ballet was premiered on January 3, 1890, at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
Antichrist, Leviathan: its metaphorical usage means a man unpleasing to God, an evildoer, blasphemer, that is someone who acts against God's commandments. Later, this word started to be used as a swear word and generally mean a bad or cruel man. The word “Antichrist” is found in St. John's epistles: “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour”(1 John 2:18).