Photo by B. Shomler
Emi Hariyama e Kwang-Suk Choi in the production of the San Jose Cleveland Ballet (2000)
Swan Lake is one of the most popular ballets of all times. The ballet captures, more than any other, the range of the human emotions: hope, desperation, terror, tenderness, melancholy, ecstasy.
It marks the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between the composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaicovsky (1840 - 1893) and the choreographer and ballet master of the Russian Imperial Ballet, Marius Petipa (1818 - 1910).
Incredibly, when it made its debut in 1876, Swan Lake was a fiasco. The choreography was poor, and critics said it was a ballet without a future.
The version we know today is the result of the collaboration between Petipa and his assistant Lev Ivanov for a new version in 1895. The fully developed drama tells the story of a woman caught in the body of a bird, depicted through the movements of the arms, the articulations of thelegs and feet, the position of the head and the neck of the dancer.
In Swan Lake young Prince Siegfried falls in love with the Queen of the Swans, Odette. She is a woman who has been transformed into a bird by a cruel wizard. Odette explains to him that she is destined to remain a strange composite creature until she is saved by the eternal love of a man.
Captivated by her beauty the prince promises eternal love, but at the festivities for his 21st birthday, he is tricked by the wizard Von Rothbart, and declares his love for Odile, Odette’s evil twin sister. When he realizes he has betrayed Odette, the prince runs to the lake.
Here he meets Von Rothbart, and overcomes him in a duel, destroying his power. The two lovers are re-united.
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Swan Lake is one of the most technically difficult ballets. The difficulty is in part due to an exceptional Italian dancer, Pierina Legnani. When Legnani danced in the twofold role of Odette/Odile, she demonstrated her ability to execute 32 fouettes continuously.
The public was so impressed that the 32 fouettes are demanded of any dancer who has danced in the role since then. Apart from the difficulty, many people hate the 32 fouettes because they consider them a circus piece, only for effect, with no psychological motivation inherent to the drama. In Swan Lake the movements generally reveal the character of the personage, giving each gesture a reason to exist.
Foto by B. Shomler
Oscar Hawkins, Emi Hariyama and Kwang-Suk Choi in the production of the San Jose Cleveland Ballet (2000)
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