Swan Lake


Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time.
The scenario, initially in two acts, was based on Russian and German folk tales, telling a story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse.
The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The choreographer of this original production was Julius Reisinger.
Most ballet companies now base their performances on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on 15 January 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by Riccardo Drigo.

History

Origins of the ballet

The authorship of the original libretto remains uncertain, and the precise origins of the narrative are likewise obscure. Russian and German folk traditions have been suggested as possible sources, among them Johann Karl August Musäus’s 1784 tale The Stolen Veil, from the collection Volksmärchen der Deutschen and based on the Swan maiden myth. These accounts, however, bear only limited resemblance to the storyline of the ballet.
As reported by other sources, the story does not have a specific author, as it was shaped through ballet conventions. Several critics have noted that many ideas in the libretto appear in legends from various countries, and that a German setting was also frequent in nineteenth-century ballets. Siegfried's character resembles Albrecht from Giselle, as both are deceived into betraying their beloved, and the ball to choose a bride appears in La fille du Danube. The swan maidens may be variations of the wilis and sylphs common in Romantic ballets. The story also has connections with Daniel Auber’s opera Le lac des fées.
One hypothesis proposes that the original choreographer, Julius Reisinger, a Bohemian and thus plausibly acquainted with The Stolen Veil, was responsible for devising the story. An alternative view attributes the authorship to Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, then Director of the Moscow Imperial Theatres, possibly in collaboration with Vasily Geltser, a danseur of the Bolshoi Theatre. A surviving libretto copy indeed bears Begichev’s name. However, as the first published libretto diverges from Tchaikovsky’s score in numerous passages, some scholars have suggested that it may have been prepared by a journalist, based upon observations of the early rehearsals, in line with the contemporary custom of reporting new operatic and balletic productions together with their scenarios in the press.
Another often-cited possibility proposes that the story was invented by Tchaikovsky himself, who reportedly used a similar plot for his earlier short ballet The Lake of the Swans. Even the protagonists’ names were already the same: his brother Modest and his niece Tatiana played Siegfried and Odette, respectively. According to some theories, Tchaikovsky was influenced by Richard Wagner’s operas, which he generally held in high regard. In Der Ring des Nibelungen, there is also a character named Siegfried who, by unknowingly betraying his beloved, ultimately causes his own death. The names of the guests at the ball are reminiscent of characters in Tannhäuser. Even greater parallels can be observed in Lohengrin, such as the use of the swan as a symbol of purity, the presence of an evil sorcerer, the use of heraldic trumpets to signal supernatural events, and the heroine’s death as the result of an unintended betrayal.
Some of Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries noted his keen interest in the life of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, whose existence was said to have been symbolically associated with the swan and who has at times been regarded as a possible prototype for the dreamer figure of Prince Siegfried.
In May 1875 Vladimir Begichev commissioned Tchaikovsky to compose the score for Swan Lake, for which he received a fee of 800 rubles. The composer was provided only with a rudimentary framework from Julius Reisinger, outlining the requirements for each dance. Unlike the instructions for the scores of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, no original written directives for Swan Lake were long thought to have survived. For many years, scholarly understanding of aspects such as choreography rested primarily upon contemporary commentaries and reviews. However, in 2015 rehearsal notes dating from as early as 1876 were identified in the Institute for Art Studies in Moscow, offering fresh insight into the nature of the ballet’s original 1877 production.

Tchaikovsky's influences

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" who were highly skilled at scoring the light, decorative, melodious, and rhythmically clear music that was at that time in vogue for ballet. Tchaikovsky studied the music of "specialists" such as the Italian Cesare Pugni and the Austrian Ludwig Minkus, before setting to work on Swan Lake.
Tchaikovsky had a rather negative opinion of the "specialist" ballet music until he studied it in detail, being impressed by the nearly limitless variety of infectious melodies their scores contained. Tchaikovsky most admired the ballet music of such composers as Léo Delibes, Adolphe Adam, and later, Riccardo Drigo. 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. I was ashamed, for if I had known of this music then, I would not have written Swan Lake." Tchaikovsky most admired Adam's 1844 score for Giselle, which used the Leitmotif technique: associating certain themes with certain characters or moods, a technique he would use in Swan Lake and, later, The Sleeping Beauty.
Tchaikovsky drew on previous compositions for his Swan Lake score. According to two of Tchaikovsky's relatives – his nephew Yuri Lvovich Davydov and his niece Anna Meck-Davydova – the composer had earlier created a little ballet called The Lake of the Swans at their home in 1871. This ballet included the famous Leitmotif, the "Swan's Theme" or "Song of the Swans". He also made use of material from The Voyevoda, an opera he had abandoned in 1868. Another number which included a theme from The Voyevoda was the Entr'acte of the fourth scene and the opening of the Finale. The Grand adage from the second scene of Swan Lake was fashioned from the final love duet from his opera Undina, abandoned in 1873.
By April 1876 the score was complete, and rehearsals began. Soon Reisinger began setting certain numbers aside that he dubbed "undanceable". Reisinger even began choreographing dances to other composers' music, but Tchaikovsky protested and his pieces were reinstated. Although the two artists were required to collaborate, each seemed to prefer working as independently of the other as possible. At times, Tchaikovsky actually ended up turning to Alina Bryullova, a family acquaintance, for advice on how he should write music for ballet; she later recalled that due to her lack of expertise she "could give him practically no advice."

Composition process

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 year. His letters to Sergei Taneyev from August 1875 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 1876, the work was complete. Tchaikovsky's mention of a draft suggests the presence of some sort of abstract but no such draft has ever been seen. 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.

Performance history

Moscow première
  • Date: 4 March 1877
  • Place: Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
  • Balletmaster: Julius Reisinger
  • Conductor: Stepan Ryabov
  • Scene Designers: Karl Valts, Ivan Shangin, Karl Groppius
St. Petersburg première
  • Date: 27 January 1895
  • Place: Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
  • Balletmaster: Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov
  • Conductor: Riccardo Drigo
  • Scene Designers: Ivan Andreyev, Mikhail Bocharov, Henrich Levogt
  • Costume Designer: Yevgeni Ponomaryov
Other notable productions
Original interpreters
RoleMoscow 1877Moscow 1880St. Petersburg 1895Moscow 1901London 1911London 1946
QueenOlga NikolayevaGiuseppina Cecchetti
SiegfriedVictor GillertAlfred BekefiPavel GerdtMikhail MordkinVaslav NijinskyRobert Helpmann
BennoSergey NikitinAleksandr OblakovLeslie Edwards
WolfgangWilhelm WannerGillertPaul Reymond
OdettePelageya KarpakovaYevdokiya KalmїkovaPierina LegnaniAdelaide GiuriMathilde KschessinskaMargot Fonteyn
Von RothbartSergey SokolovAleksey BulgakovK. KubakinDavid Davenport
OdilePelageya KarpakovaPierina LegnaniMathilde KschessinskaMargot Fonteyn