tchaikovsky swan lake
Hi! The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. He would later write to his protégé, the composer Sergei Taneyev, “I listened to the Delibes ballet ‘Sylvia’…what charm, what elegance, what wealth of melody, rhythm, and harmony. Pop 19 Don Henley - Boys Of Summer Vocal cover by dead faeries. The biggest difference of productions all over the world is that the ending varies from romantic to tragic. Sleeping Beauty (1889) Two swans, implied to be the lovers, are then seen flying past the Moon. 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. She forgives him and the pair reaffirm their love. Rothbart is the central antagonist in the ballet. No rehearsal material or performance score survives. The sovereign or ruling Princess is often rendered “Queen Mother”. Rothbart is a powerful sorcerer who casts a spell on Odette that turns her into a swan every day and returns her to human form at night. Allegro moderato-], but freezes when one of them transforms into a beautiful maiden, Odette [Scène. The dazzled public roared with demands for an encore, and the Ballerina repeated her variation, this time performing twenty-eight fouettés en tournant. Russian culture has always drawn heavily on fairy tales but the two or three often cited as possible sources for Swan Lake bear little resemblance to the story that is danced on stage. The ballet belonged solely to Legnani until she left St. Petersburg for her native Italy in 1901. Between 18 July and mid-August 1875 Tchaikovsky finished his Third Symphony and wrote two acts of Swan Lake. Berger’s production was only given eight performances, and was even planned for production at the Fantasia Garden in Moscow in 1893, but it never materialised. Tchaikovsky [Tchaikowski, Tchaikowskij, Tchaikovsky, Chakowski, Cajkovskij], Pyotr Ilyich [Pëtr Il'ic] Kamsko-Votkinsk 1840 - St. Petersburg 1893 ... Swan Lake, Op. He made use of material from The Voyevoda, an opera that he had abandoned in 1868. Tchaikovsky* - Philharmonia Orchestra, John Lanchbery: Tchaikovsky* - Philharmonia Orchestra, John Lanchbery - The Ballets - The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty (8xLP + Box, Comp) His Master's Voice, His Master's Voice, His Master's Voice: SLS 5273, SLS 5270 to SLS 5272, OC 157-64900/7T: UK & Europe: Unknown: Sell This Version A similar ending was used in. The plan succeeds, yet in the end, Rothbart is not triumphant. Odette is often referred to as a “tragic heroine” and is always portrayed as vulnerable, gentle, caring, modest and warm-hearted. The storm subsides, the moon comes out and a band of swans appear on the tranquil lake. The score used in this résumé is Tchaikovsky’s score as he originally composed it (including later additions of the original 1877 production). Her performance demonstrated her phenomenal technique, climaxing in her variation from the final tableau no fewer than thirty-two fouettés en tournant (the most ever performed at that time) during the grand pas. When Rothbart realises that Odette has fallen in love with Prince Siegfried, he tries to intervene by tricking Siegfried into declaring his love for his daughter Odile. The most authoritative theory appears to be that it was written by Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, director of the Moscow Imperial Theatres during the time that the ballet was originally produced, and possibly Vasily Geltser, Danseur of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. To escape the spell, Odette chooses to die and Siegfried chooses to die with her; the lovers drown themselves in the lake and are reunited forever in death. Tchaikovsky’s excitement with Swan Lake is evident from the speed with which he composed: commissioned in the spring of 1875, the piece was created within one full year. Rothbart and Siegfried struggle. When Siegfried and Odette make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their love by throwing themselves into the lake, Rothbart’s powers are overcome and he is destroyed. One example is the Bolshoi Ballet’s version, where he is portrayed as a sadistic schemer and plays a wicked game of fate with Siegfried, which he wins at the end, causing Siegfried to lose everything. Download and print in PDF or MIDI free sheet music for Swan Lake (Ballet), Op.20 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arranged by willdsc for Piano (Solo) She had made her début with the Imperial Ballet in Cinderella, produced in December 1893 (choreographed by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Enrico Cecchetti to the music of Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell). (Baron Von) Rothbart, an evil sorcerer, who has enchanted Odette This production was far more well-received than the original, though it was by no means a great success. Hansen made considerable efforts throughout the late 1870s/early 1880s to salvage Swan Lake, and on 13 January 1880, he presented a new production of the ballet for his own benefit performance. There was a ballerina known as Alicia Alonso, who made her version of the Lake with the happy ending and believe me, it was beautiful (and nice). There are major differences between Drigo’s and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake score. He arrives at the lakeside clearing, just as a flock of swans land nearby [Scène. Ivanov’s choreography for the memorial concert was unanimously hailed as wonderful. Tchaikovsky’s younger brother Modest was called upon to make the required changes to the ballet’s libretto, the most prominent being his revision of the ballet’s finale; instead of the lovers simply drowning at the hand of the wicked Von Rothbart as in the original 1877 scenario, Odette commits suicide by drowning herself, with Prince Siegfried choosing to die as well, rather than live without her, and soon the lovers’ spirits are reunited in an apotheosis. By April 1876 the work was complete. Julius Reisinger left Moscow in 1879, and his successor as Balletmaster was Joseph Peter Hansen. The contemporaries of Tchaikovsky recalled the composer taking great interest in the life story of Bavarian King Ludwig II, whose tragic life had supposedly been marked by the sign of Swan and who—either consciously or not—was chosen as the prototype of the dreamer Prince Siegfried. Begichev commissioned the score of Swan Lake from Tchaikovsky in 1875 for a rather modest fee of 800 rubles, and soon Begichev began to choose artists that would participate in the creation of the ballet. Your email address will not be published. 20, is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. I was ashamed, for if I had known of this music then, I would not have written ‘Swan Lake'”. Following his graduation from the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire in 1865, Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow where he was given his first employment as a teacher in Russia’s second conservatoire by Nikolai Rubenstein. The score was finally completed in April 1876. Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое озеро/Lebedinoye ozero), Op. According to Lopukhov, “both the plot of Swan Lake, the image of the Swan and the very idea of a faithful love are essentially Russian”. Von Rothbart appears and insists that Siegfried fulfill his pledge to marry Odile, after which Odette will be transformed into a swan forever. Until 1953 this pas de deux was thought to be lost, until an accidentally discovered repétiteur was found in the archives of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre among the orchestral parts used for Alexander Gorsky’s revival of Le Corsaire (Gorsky had included the piece in his version of Le Corsaire staged in 1912). Ballet is full of horrible endings for the the lovers. Rothbart (“Redbeard”) may also be spelled Rotbart. Apart from a full symphonic score, Tchaikovsky offered moments of magical orchestration too numerous to mention, and, with the sophisticated use of different tonalities, links the various elements of the narrative into a cohesive whole (using B minor for the Swans, for instance, F minor for Rothbart). During the late 1880s and early 1890s, Petipa and Vsevolozhsky considered reviving Swan Lake and were in talks with Tchaikovsky about doing so. But it was not until after Tchaikovsky’s death that Swan Lake achieved the success it deserved in a revised version of the score by Riccardo Drigo (1846-1930), the Italian composer, conductor and long-serving Director of Music of the Imperial Ballet of St Petersburg. Op.20a ; TH 219 I-Catalogue Number I-Cat. Nearly every balletmaster or choreographer who has re-staged Swan Lake has sought to make modifications to the ballet’s scenario, while still maintaining to a considerable extent the traditional choreography for the dances, which is regarded as virtually sacrosanct. Your email address will not be published. The score was published posthumously, and it did not achieve lasting fame until after the … Odette also appears in many adaptations of the ballet. He was commissioned to write it by the Vladimir Begichev for the Moscow Imperial Theater in the spring of 1875, and the whole piece was created within one year: by April 1876, the ballet was complete. However, Tchaikovsky died on 6 November 1893, just when plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come to fruition. This act of sacrifice and love breaks Von Rothbart’s power, and he is destroyed. He aims his crossbow at the swans [Scène. Wolfgang, his tutor. He then agreed to compose a new pas de deux for the ballerina, but soon a problem arose: Sobeshchanskaya had no reservations about performing a pas to Tchaikovsky’s new music, but she wanted to retain Petipa’s choreography, and she had no wish to travel to St. Petersburg again to have the Ballet Master arrange a new pas for her. Soon Reisinger began setting certain numbers aside that he dubbed “unsuitable for ballet.” Reisinger even began choreographing dances to other composers’ music, but Tchaikovsky protested, and his pieces were reinstated. All was ready by the beginning of 1895, and the ballet had its première on Friday, 27 January. This tale was probably tweaked by Tchaikovsky and his friends during the ballet's early discussion stages. The part of Odette/Odile was danced by Evdokia Kalmykova, a student of the Moscow Imperial Ballet School, with Alfred Bekefi as Prince Siegfried. Tchaikovsky most admired the ballet music of such composers as Léo Delibes, Adolphe Adam, and later, Riccardo Drigo. Hansen would go on to become Balletmaster to the Alhambra Theatre in London, and on 1 December 1884, he presented a one-act ballet titled The Swans, which was inspired by the second scene of Swan Lake. Pudelek, Janina. Tchaikovsky's magical ballet tells the story of the doomed love of Prince Siegfried and Princess Odette. [Scène: Allegro, Tempo di valse, Allegro vivo] Odette appears as a vision and vainly tries to warn Siegfried that he is being deceived. Out of all the characters in the ballet, Siegfried is the only one to appear on all four acts. Unlike the première of The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake did not dominate the repertory of the Mariinsky Theatre in its first season. 20, is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–1876. The ballet's content is based on a Russian folktale, and over the course of two acts, tells the story of a princess turned into a swan. Still, the showstopper moments come off well (check out the stomping “Coda” from the Act I “Pas de deux”), as do the tender moments (like violinist Ida Haendel’s solo during “Danses des cygnes”). The enormously successful production starred Lew Christensen as Prince Siegfried, Jacqueline Martin as Odette, and Janet Reed as Odile. But before he can shoot it, the swan transforms into the most beautiful girl he has ever seen: Princess Odette, the Queen of the Swans. In the 1986 version Rudolf Nureyev choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet, Rothbart fights with Siegfried, who is overcome and dies, leaving Rothbart to take Odette triumphantly up to the heavens. Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое озеро / Lebedinoye ozero), Op. Most of the reviews in the St. Petersburg newspapers were positive. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake / Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra (CD, 2 Discs, DG Deutsche Grammophon (USA)) at the best online prices at eBay! Swan Lake is one of the most popular of all classical ballets, and the first of Tchaikovsky’s three ballets (the others being The Sleeping Beauty and … However, what is most usually seen today is a revised version of the score with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov which premiered at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre on 27 January 1895, two years after Tchaikovsky’s death. Pierina Legnani danced Odette/Odile, with Pavel Gerdt as Prince Siegfried, Alexei Bulgakov as Von Rothbart, and Alexander Oblakov as Benno. Really. She only appears in the third act, usually dressed in black (though in the 1895 production, she did not wear black) and magically disguised as Odette in order to help her father trick Siegfried into breaking his vow of love to Odette. the Love Duet) from the second scene of Swan Lake was fashioned from an aria from that opera, as was the Valse des fiancées from the third scene. “Swan Lake” in Warsaw, 1900. Listen to our recommended recording of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, featured on Tchaikovsky: Ballet Suites performed by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, on Apple Music and Spotify and scroll down to read our masterpiece guide to the ballet. However, the death of Tsar Alexander III on 1 November 1894 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. Today the music is so well-known and popular that it's impossible to comprehend the difficulties the composer experienced at … Los Angeles group Sweetbox uses the main theme for the chorus of their song “Superstar” from the 2001 album “Classified”. Hansen’s version of Swan Lake was given only four times, the final performance being on 2 January 1883, and soon the ballet was dropped from the repertory altogether. Subject.to much argument and change is the ending; variously, Odetter kills helself in despair, the Prince either joins her or follows after her, Odette or both either rise (To Heaven) or drown ( trust me, this is important) OR THE Prince rights/kills Rothbart and Odette liveSS, rising/rescued from the lake ( coming down from Heaven is a no-no) OR the power of their love defeats Rothbart, who dies. He clearly cares more for socialising, merry events and sporting activities, as shown when he is celebrating his 21st birthday with his best friend, Benno and his tutor, Wolfgang. In 1940, San Francisco Ballet became the first American company to stage a complete production of Swan Lake. It was composed in 1875 and over 100 years later it remains a favorite with ballet companies regularly performing it throughout the world. Siegfried is upset that he cannot marry for love. From around the time of the turn of the 19th century until the beginning of the 1890s, scores for ballets were almost always written by composers known as “specialists”: composers who were highly skilled at scoring the light, decorative, melodious, and rhythmically clear music that was at that time in vogue for ballet. Petipa choreographed Sobeshchanskaya’s pas de deux to music composed by Ludwig Minkus, who held the post of Ballet composer to the St Petersburg Imperial Theatres. In a version which has an ending very close to the 1895 Mariinsky revival, danced by American Ballet Theatre in 2005, Siegfried’s mistaken pledge of fidelity to Odile consigns Odette to remain a swan forever. Even more surprising, the ballet was performed only four times in 1898 and 1899. Unlike The Sleeping Beauty, composed more than a decade later, there was little communication about the details of the music between Tchaikovsky and the ballet master, Reisinger. One final point. to be produced and directed and photographed with intelligence and taste and respect for the arts . The Swan Lake ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Hansen presented another version of Swan Lake on 28 October 1882, again with Kalmykova as Odette/Odile. —Modest Tchaikovsky, brother of the composer, Animated theatrical and direct-to-video productions, Rudolf Nureyev’s choreography of Swan Lake, 1880 and 1882, Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, staged by Joseph Hansen after Reisinger, conductor and designers as in première, 1901, Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, staged by Aleksandr Gorsky, conducted by Andrey Arends, scenes by Aleksandr Golovin (Act 1), Konstantin Korovin (Acts 2 & 4), N. Klodt (Act 3), 1911, London, Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev production, choreography by Michel Fokine after Petipa-Ivanov, scenes by Golovin and Korovin, The 2000 American Ballet Theatre version (taped for television in 2005), rather than having the curtain down as the slow introduction is played, used this music to accompany a new prologue in which the audience is shown how Von Rothbart first transforms Odette into a swan. She forgives him, but explains that she has chosen to die so she can escape Rothbart’s spell. On 26 April 1877 the prima ballerina of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre Anna Sobeshchanskaya made her début as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, and from the start she was completely dissatisfied with the production of the ballet, but most of all with Reisinger’s choreography and Tchaikovsky’s music. Odette (aka Queen Of The Swans and The White Swan), who has been transformed into a white swan by Rothbart Odile (The Black Swan), Rothbart’s daughter She is Odette who explains that she and her companions are victims of a spell cast on them by the evil Rothbart whereby they are turned into swans during the day, only returning to human form at night by the enchanted lake. His favourite hobby is hunting, so to end his birthday celebrations, he and Benno head into the forest on a hunting expedition with their companions. The adaption follows the original, but some parts like the pas de deux was not possible to perform in Second Life and has been changed. However, Geltser was in all probability merely the first person to copy the scenario for publication, as a surviving copy bears his name. All parts are played by individual avatars. The Russian ballerina Anna Sobeshchanskaya — for whom the original (1877) role of Odette was intended — was pulled from the première performance when a governing official in Moscow complained about her, stating that she had accepted several pieces of expensive jewelry from him, only to then marry a fellow danseur and sell the pieces for cash. This prologue is similar to Vladimir Burmeister’s production of “Swan Lake” (firstly staged in Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, 1953) but has some differences. Family lore records that there was a house production of a ballet called The Lake Of Swans in the summer of 1871 which Tchaikovsky wrote for his nieces and nephews. Suspecting nothing, Siegfried falls for the trickery and pledges eternal love to Odile, thinking she is Odette and now all seems lost. The Princess departs, the celebrations resume, but Siegfried is, understandably, miserable at the thought of being unable to marry for love. The second scene of Swan Lake was then presented on 21 February in Prague by the Ballet of the National Theatre in a version mounted by the Balletmaster August Berger. The production’s “failure” was due to several reasons. However, everything takes an ironic twist on this expedition, for deep in the forest, Siegfried and his friends arrive at a lake, where Siegfried spots a beautiful swan wearing a crown. In this version, the lovers’ joint suicide inspires the rest of von Rothbart’s imprisoned swans to turn on him and overcome his spell, which ultimately defeats him. Odette, comforted by her swan maidens, is distraught. It may not be the easiest "Swan Lake" to live with, nor is it the only possible interpretation of the ballet, yet Svetlanov's is by far the most profound version on disc around. Today, we take Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score of Swan Lake for granted but it was revolutionary in its time. Follow uDiscover Classical on Facebook and Twitter. Title Лебединое озеро Composer Tchaikovsky, Pyotr: Opus/Catalogue Number Op./Cat. There are 33 numbers in the complete ballet scored for a large symphony orchestra (five instruments more than the pit orchestra for Tristan Und Isolde, for example). 20 (TH 12) does not claim to be exhaustive, but the following information is given, where known: . I was ashamed, for if I had known of this music then, I would not have written Swan Lake.”. When the storm subsides, Odette is left alone to mourn the dead Siegfried. The two composers whose ballet music he most admired were French: Adolphe Adam and Leo Delibes. The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on 4 March [O.S. Prince Siegfried, a handsome Prince who falls in love with Odette He invites her to attend a Ball at his castle and promises to choose her as his bride, but everything takes a turn for the worst. This, the graceful ‘Waltz’ from Act 1, and the delightful ‘Dance Of The Cygnets’ from Act 2, are the best-known musical highlights of this great score. He takes aim with his crossbow but freezes when one of them transforms into a beautiful maiden – it was the swan he was on the point of killing. 20, is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. No. Some productions in the West include a prologue that shows the actual transformation by which Princess Odette is first turned into a swan.