Though Petipa also added several changes to the original score, he ensured with his assistant Lev Ivanov that he remained faithful to Tchaikovsky's original vision.
However, the composer had already died two years earlier, and was thus unable to witness Petipa's work, nor enjoy the immense success of his creation The choreography of Petipa and Ivanov follows perfectly the romantic ballet tradition. The "Ballet blanc" style commonly associated with supernatural creatures and fantastic spirits, are in each of the tableaux : pas-de-deux , pas-de-quatre , variations, but also Spanish and Hungarian dances. Of course, the overall work follows a precise outline and codification: the pas-de-deux , for example, opens with an adage, followed by variations for the male and female dancer respectively before closing with a virtuosic coda.
Marius Petipa was also the creator of an important tradition: the first ballerina to perform both principal roles, Odette the Swan-princess, and Odile her evil twin. Over one hundred years later, this tradition is still respected, making the Swan-princess one of ballet's most demanding roles. As a choreographer, Nureyev sought to elevate the importance of masculine roles: in many classical and romantic ballets, these roles were of secondary importance whose only purpose was to highlight the female dancers.
Yet what ballet could be better suited to the elevation of a masculine role than Swan Lake? This story of a prince torn between his duties and his dream, helplessly and hopelessly in love? While performing the role of Prince Siegfried with the London Royal Ballet in , Rudolf Nureyev introduced a new variation to the end of Act I, a solo during which the prince is finally able to express all his feelings, and his melancholy. The Czech choreographer Julius Reisinger was appointed to craft the ballet.
He and Tchaikovsky had a bumpy relationship, with both preferring to work independently rather than collaborate. Swan Lake has a disatrous premiere. Critics at the first performance were universal disparaging.
Hansen set about re-staging Swan Lake, launching his new version in January A planned revival of the ballet in the early s was cast into doubt by the death of Tchaikovsky in November The revised version, commonly the version of the score used today, premiered in January to overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Swan Lake is the most commonly staged ballet in the world. Whether by demanding the addition or removal of a dance, Reisinger made it clear that he was to be a very large part in the creation of this piece. Although the two artists were required to collaborate, each seemed to prefer working as independently of the other as possible. Tchaikovsky drew on previous compositions for his Swan Lake score.
He made use of material from The Voyevoda , an opera that he had abandoned in The Grand adage a. By April the score was complete, and rehearsals began. His letters to Sergei Taneyev from August indicate, however, that it was not only his excitement that compelled him to create it so quickly but his wish to finish it as soon as possible, so as to allow him to start on an opera.
Respectively, he created scores of the first three numbers of the ballet, then the orchestration in the fall and winter, and was still struggling with the instrumentation in the spring. By April the work was complete. Tchaikovsky wrote various letters to friends expressing his longstanding desire to work with this type of music, and his excitement concerning his current stimulating, albeit laborious task.
Karpakova likely also danced the part Odile, although it is not known for certain. Most of the critics were not themselves familiar with ballet or music but rather with spoken melodrama.
Yet the fact remains and is too often omitted in accounts of this initial production that this staging survived for six years with a total of 41 performances — many more than several other ballets from the repertoire of this theatre. Sobeshchanskaya travelled to St. Word of this change soon found its way to Tchaikovsky, who became very angry, stating that, whether the ballet is good or bad, he alone shall be held responsible for its music. Petersburg again to have the Ballet Master arrange a new pas for her.
This production was far more well-received than the original, though it was by no means a great success. For this production Hansen arranged a Grand Pas for the ballroom scene which he titled La Cosmopolitana. Hansen would go on to become Balletmaster to the Alhambra Theatre in London, and on 1 December , he presented a one-act ballet titled The Swans , which was inspired by the second scene of Swan Lake.
The ballet was given during two concerts which were conducted by Tchaikovsky. During the late s and early s, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky considered reviving Swan Lake and were in talks with Tchaikovsky about doing so.
However, Tchaikovsky died on 6 November , just when plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come to fruition. It remains uncertain whether Tchaikovsky was even going to revise the music for the prospected revival of Swan Lake. In February , two memorial concerts planned by Vsevolozhsky were given in honor of Tchaikovsky. The Ballerina who danced Odette and Odile was the Italian virtuosa Pierina Legnani, and it was because of her great talent that the prospected revival of Swan Lake was planned for her benefit performance in the — season.
However, the death of Tsar Alexander III on 1 November and the period of official mourning that followed it brought all ballet performances and rehearsals to a close for some time, and as a result all efforts were able to be concentrated on the pre-production of the revival of Swan Lake. Ivanov and Petipa chose to collaborate on the production, with Ivanov retaining his dances for the second Act while choreographing the fourth, and with Petipa staging the first and third Acts. Aside from the revision of the libretto the ballet was changed from four acts to three—with Act II becoming Act I-Scene 2.
Most of the reviews in the St. Petersburg newspapers were positive. Even more surprising, the ballet was performed only four times in and The ballet belonged solely to Legnani until she left St.
Petersburg for her native Italy in Throughout the long and complex performance history of Swan Lake the edition of Petipa, Ivanov, and Drigo has served as the version from which many stagings have been based. Also Baron von Stein, his wife, and Freiherr von Schwarzfels and his wife were no longer identified on the program.
Princess Odette is the lead ballerina role. Odette also appears in many adaptations of the ballet. She appears in the second and fourth acts, though she also makes a minor appearance in the third act when she appears as a vision during the Ball. As the heroine of the story, she has been transformed into a swan by Von Rothbart and can only regain her human form at night. The only way for the spell to be broken is by the power of eternal love between Odette and a young man who will remain faithful to her, for if the vow of eternal love is broken, she will remain a swan forever.
When Odette falls in love with Prince Siegfried, hope for her freedom has come at last, until Siegfried is tricked into breaking his vow by Von Rothbart, trapping Odette as a swan forever.
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