Swan Lake Essay, Research Paper

Swan Lake

Swan Lake is a ballet that consist of four acts. It is based from a German fairy tale. It contains music from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The first performance of Swan Lake was in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater. It was held on May 4, 1877. The choreographer was Julius Reisinger. It was not successful.

Swan Lake is the French version of a German tale. It is about a princess named Odette who is turned into a swan by an evil magician named Rothbart. In some versions of the story it is said that her friends also are turned into swans. Every midnight is it that they become humans and only for a few hours. One midnight prince Siegfried sees her and falls in love with her. He promises to rescue her.

There is going to be a ball at the castle where Siegfried lives. At the ball he will announce who he will marry. Odlie which is Rothbart’s daughter goes to the ball like a black swan. Prince Siegfried is drawn to her and tells everyone he will marry her. Odette goes and sees what is happening and rushes to the lake. Prince Siegfried notices her and runs after her because he notices that he has broken the promise.

He goes to the lake and Princess Odette for gives him. Rothbart seeing what is happening makes a big storm and they both drown. In other versions there is a happy ending where the prince fight with Rothbart. He breaks the spell. The other versions say Rothbart surprises Odette while her and her friends were gathering flowers he turned all of them into swans.

After Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893 a memorial was given and there was a second act, rechoreographed by Lev Ivanov. A full production was performed January 27,1895 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The Russian’s had great expectations for the production. Marius Petipa choreographed Acts I and III, and Ivanov choreographed Acts II and IV. “This version required major changes in the sequence of the music as originally written.” It finally received recognition at the end that is deserved.