Swan Lake is an exceptional ballet, to the music of the brilliant Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which has captured the hearts of classical music fans for over a century. It is a pearl of Russian classics that has attracted many world-famous dancers. This choreographic masterpiece created more than 130 years ago is still considered an unparalleled achievement of Russian culture.
Swan Lake is a philosophical poem about the eternal struggle between good and deceit and evil. This struggle mainly takes place within a person. In this representation, we see the struggle of Prince Siegfried.
The Story of Swan Lake
In an ancient park Princess Odette is sad. Suddenly a stranger appears. It is Rothbart, who is an evil wizard and proposes marriage to the princess. Odette refuses him and he transforms her into a white swan.
Prince Siegfried celebrates his majority with his friends. His mother appears and everyone tries to hide the traces of the party but fails, because the jester inadvertently knocks over the cups. The princess is not happy but is presented with a bouquet of roses, and she softens and leaves. The game continues and in the evening Siegfried is left alone. He doesn’t want to go home yet. We see a flock of swans flying high in the sky.
Then the swans swim on a large lake. They are nervous. They are bewitched girls who will not be able to take their human form until after midnight. Siegfried appears on the shore with a crossbow in his hand. He is ready to shoot an arrow at a white swan when it transforms into a girl of indescribable beauty and grace. It’s Odette, the swan queen. Siegfried will look for her among the other swans to declare his love for her. At dawn they are forced to separate because the evil wizard Rothbart watches the girls closely, allowing no one to escape his sorcery. Finally the girls turn into swans with the first rays of the sun.
In the castle of the Sovereign Princess, a magnificent ball takes place where, according to his mother’s wishes, Siegfried must choose a woman from among the beauties invited. Siegfried is indifferent to them because his heart belongs to the Queen of the Swans. But suddenly a mysterious knight appears with his daughter Odile. Siegfried is convinced that Odette and Odile are the same person and declares his love for her.
At this moment a white swan appears at the window of the castle. It’s Odette. Seeing her Siegfried understands his mistake. Frightened by the consequences of his mistake, he rushes to the lake to ask forgiveness from his beloved.
Unfortunately, his regrets are in vain because the Swan Queen no longer has any power over her destiny. She is destined to die. Desperate for his love, Prince Siegfried enters into combat with Rothbart. He mortally wounds him, but he himself also dies. Rothbart’s spell is broken. The swan girls are freed from the terrible spell.
In 1937, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Asaf Messerep also updated the Swan Lake ballet and changed the ending to a happy ending where Prince Siegfried survives the fight.
The story of the creation of Swan Lake
In 1875, Tchaikovsky received an order from the management of the Imperial Theaters, and was offered to work with the script by V. Begichev and V. Geltser, which was mainly based on various fairy tales and legends, in which there are girls turned into swans. This commission was unusual because “serious” composers of ballet music did not write.
For this Tchaikovsky studied the dances, their sequences as well as various ballets, to clearly understand the composition and the structure. It was only after doing this, that he began to compose. At the end of the summer of 1875, the first two acts were written, and at the beginning of the winter the last two. The following spring Tchaikovsky orchestrated what he had composed and finished work on the score.
In the fall, work was underway at the theater for the staging of the ballet directed by V. Reisinger who unfortunately turned out to be a poor director with few, if any, successes.
The premiere of Swan Lake took place in February 1877 and was a failure.
Nearly 20 years later, the management of the Imperial Theaters once again took an interest in Tchaikovsky’s work, to stage it in the new season of 1893 and 1894. For this, the famous Petipa developed a new scenario for the piece and started working on it with Tchaikovsky. The sudden death of the composer interrupted this work but Petipa continued this work a year later. The plot and performance of Swan Lake grew incredibly rich and had a terrible success at its new premiere in 1895 in St. Petersburg
Swan Lake is performed all over the world today and most productions retain Ivanov and Petipa’s choreography in one form or another. However there are original performances by John Neumeier, Matthew Born, Mats Ek, using only Tchaikovsky’s score.
Sources:
П.И. Чайковский балет “Лебединое озеро”
Экранизация балета «Лебединое озеро»
Сюжет балета “Лебединое озеро”. P. И. Чайковский, “Лебединое озеро”: краткое содержание и отзывы
Чайковский. Балет “Лебединое озеро”
ЛЕБЕДИНОЕ ОЗЕРО Петр Чайковский
P. И.Чайковский Лебединое озеро
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