"classical repertoire's most famous ballets. Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on 25 May 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation on the subject of the story of ""Undine"". It was later decided that Charles Perrault's ""La Belle au bois dormant"" would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would compose the music for the ballet. Tchaikovsky did not hesitate to accept the commission, although he was aware that his only previous ballet, ""Swan Lake"", met with little enthusiasm at that stage of his career. The ballet scenario that Tchaikovsky worked on was"
"Tchaikovsky, the ballet's composer, whose homosexuality caused a number of complications in his life. In order to accommodate his revised scenario, Bourne somewhat altered Tchaikovsky's score, reordering several numbers and omitting others. For example, No. 5 has been moved in its entirety from Act One to Act Three, where it follows the (reordered) national dances. Act Three has been trimmed by leaving out most of No. 19 and all of the following ""pas de deux"". The show premiered at Sadler’s Wells on 9 November 1995: Matthew Bourne's ""Swan Lake"" has collected over 30 international awards, including the following: The final"
"of both ""The Sleeping Beauty"" and ""The Nutcracker"", as well as ""Raymonda"", among many other ballets). Tchaikovsky was delighted at the prospect of ""Swan Lake"" being revived by Petipa, of whom he had the greatest respect, asserting that ""never with anyone but Petipa would I produce ballets."" According to the composer/conductor Riccardo Drigo, ""While (Tchaikovsky) was still alive I knew of his dissatisfaction with the instrumentation of (""Swan Lake""), and that he intended to take up the matter, but he never managed to do this."" Tchaikovsky died on 6 November 1893, just when plans to revive ""Swan Lake"" were beginning"
"regular performances of nearly every ballet and Italian opera performed on the Tsarist stage. Drigo is equally noted for his original full-length compositions for the ballet as well as his large catalog of supplemental music written ad hoc for insertion into already-existing works. Drigo is also noted for his adaptations of already-existing scores, such as his 1895 edition of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's score for ""Swan Lake"". Many pieces set to the music of Drigo are still performed today, and are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. Riccardo Eugenio Drigo was born in Padua, Italy on 30 June 1846. His"
"""Romeo and Juliet"" overture, the ""Coronation Cantana"", and the second scene of ""Swan Lake"". The concert was given twice, on 17 and 22 February 1894, with the ""Swan Lake"" excerpt being presented in a staging by Lev Ivanov, Second Balletmaster to the Imperial Ballet. Ivanov's choreography for the memorial concert was unanimously hailed as wonderful and though the concert itself was not a success (due to high ticket prices the turnout was poor), Ivanov nevertheless won laurels for his work. The critic Bezobrazov complemented Ivanov: ""The staging of the dances in ""Swan Lake"" is the work of the Balletmaster Lev"
"Rowland Lee (composer) Rowland Edward Lee (born August 19, 1960) is a composer, pianist and conductor. In addition to his many published concert works, he is also one of the UK’s premier TV, theatre and media composers and musical arrangers with over 600 episodes of various series and short films to his credit. Lee is perhaps best known for writing the theme song of the animated TV series ""64 Zoo Lane"" and for his orchestration of Sir Matthew Bourne's ""Swan Lake"" which is currently the most performed dance production in the world. Lee was born in Woking, Surrey to parents"
"was not performed at all in 1897. Even more surprising, the ballet was only given four times in 1898 and 1899. The ballet belonged solely to Legnani until she left St. Petersburg for her native Italy in 1901. After her departure, the ballet was taken over by Mathilde Kschessinskaya, who was as much celebrated in the role as was her Italian predecessor. There are major differences in the score of ""Swan Lake"" when one compares a recording or manuscript of the original, un-altered composition of 1877, with the score as performed in live performance. Although he is rarely credited for"
"Susana Agüero Susana Agüero (1944– March 26, 2012) was an Argentine ballet dancer who also danced in musicals and shows. She took a number of leading roles and worked for six years in France. Agüero was born in Buenos Aires. She trained at the ""Instituto Superior de Arte"" at the Teatro Colón (Columbus Theatre) which is the capital's main opera house. Her teachers included Gema Castillo, Michel Borowsky, María Ruanova, Adolfo Andrade and Serge Golovine. She soon became a soloist. Among her most important roles were Odette in ""Swan Lake"" and the Lilac Fairy in ""The Sleeping Beauty"". She also"
"ballet soon became a favorite of the ballerinas of the era, among them Mathilde Kschessinska (who created the principal role of Flora), Tamara Karsavina and particularly Anna Pavlova, who included an abridged version of the work on her legendary world tours. In late 1894 Drigo prepared an important revision of Tchaikovsky's score for ""Swan Lake"", originally produced at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1877. Following the success of ""The Sleeping Beauty"" and ""The Nutcracker"", Ivan Vsevolozhsky—director of the Saint Petersburg Theatres—expressed interest in reviving the ballet. Drigo later recalled: Tchaikovsky died on just as plans to revive ""Swan"
"""Swan Lake"", and is still used to one degree or another by ballet companies throughout the world. Nevertheless, Drigo is rarely given credit when his revisions are performed. Drigo's next score for the ballet was the grand ""piece d'occasion"" ""La Perle"" (sometimes known in Russian as ""Прелестная жемчужина"" — ""Pretty Pearl""), produced especially for the gala held at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The ballet premiered on after a performance of Glinka's ""A Life for the Tsar"". In 1899 Petipa began work on the scenario for"
"Swan Lake is scored for the typical late 19th-century large orchestra: By 1895, Benno von Sommerstern had become just ""Benno,"" and Odette ""Queen of the Swans."" Also Baron von Stein, his wife, and Freiherr von Schwarzfels and his wife were no longer identified on the program. The sovereign or ruling Princess is often rendered ""Queen Mother."" The character of Rothbart (sometimes spelled Rotbart) has been open to many interpretations. The reason for his curse upon Odette is unknown; several versions, including two feature films, have suggested reasons, but none is typically explained by the ballet. He is rarely portrayed in"
"guest performances. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been a few attempts to reduce the theatre's traditional dependence on large state subsidies. Corporate sponsorship occurs for some productions, but state funding is still the lifeblood of the company. The Bolshoi has been associated from its beginnings with ballet. Tchaikovsky's ballet ""Swan Lake"" premiered at the theatre on 4 March 1877. Other staples of the Bolshoi repertoire include Tchaikovsky's ""The Sleeping Beauty"" and ""The Nutcracker"", Adam's ""Giselle"", Prokofiev's ""Romeo and Juliet"", and Khachaturian's ""Spartacus"". The chief ballet conductor from 1923 to 1963 was Yuri Fayer. After the death"
"in act two of ""Swan Lake"". The ballet developed out of courtly dramatic productions of 16th- and 17th-century France and Italy and for some time dancers performed dances developed from those familiar from the musical suite, all of which were defined by definite rhythms closely identified with each dance. These appeared as character dances in the era of romantic nationalism. Ballet reached widespread vogue in the romantic era, accompanied by a larger orchestra and grander musical conceptions that did not lend themselves easily to rhythmic clarity and by dance that emphasised dramatic mime. A broader concept of rhythm was needed,"
"""Jewels"" (2003), ""Stars and Stripes"" (2006) and a full-length production of ""Swan Lake"" (2009). In 2008 Devon Carney, a former principal dancer and Ballet Master with Boston Ballet, was appointed as Associate Artistic Director. In addition to providing his own choreography for nine pieces, Carney has restaged and added fresh choreography to full-length classics such as ""Giselle"", ""Sleeping Beauty"", and ""Swan Lake"" to this date and during his five previous years as Ballet Master-in-Chief. During the 2007–2008 season, Morgan negotiated a performing partnership with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, which resulted in the presentation of a joint program both at The"
"and ""Nocturne"" (1919) and ""Marche Funèbre"" (1920), music by Chopin. These solo dances may be ""the first abstract ballets"" of the 20th century. Accordingly, she first received broad recognition as a choreographer. Then Nijinska, invited by the Ministry of Arts, mounted a full theatrical production of the Tchaikovsky ballet ""Swan Lake"", in which she adapted the classic Petipa and Ivanov choreography of 1895. The performance was held at Kiev's State Opera Theater. It had been reported in the literature that Nijinska and family left Kiev in 1921 in order to visit her brother Vaslav Nijinsky in Vienna, after learning of"
"ballet was dropped from the repertory altogether. In all, ""Swan Lake"" was given a total of forty-one performances between its première and the final performance of 1883 – a rather lengthy run for a ballet that was so poorly received upon its premiere. 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"". The music was composed by the Alhambra Theatre's ""chef d'orchestre"" Georges Jacoby. The second scene of ""Swan Lake"" was then presented"
"at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Lavrovsky married former ballet dancer Elena Chikvaidze; their son, Mikhail Lavrovsky, was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Theater. Leonid Lavrovsky Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky (real name - Ivanov) (1905–1967) was a Russian ballet choreographer, most famous for choreographing the first full version of Sergei Prokofiev's ""Romeo and Juliet"". Lavrovsky was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, the son of an industrial worker. He graduated in 1922 from the Petrograd Ballet Academy, where he had studied under V.I. Ponomaryov. He danced with the former Mariinsky Theater, performing such roles as Siegfried in ""Swan Lake"","
"Cynthia Harvey Cynthia Harvey (born May 17, 1957) is an American dance teacher and former ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. Harvey was born in California, and joined American Ballet Theatre in 1974. Her roles included Odette/Odile in ""Swan Lake"". While Mikhail Baryshnikov was the artistic director at ABT, he personally selected her to perform as the prima ballerina in Baryshnikov's filmed production of ""Don Quixote"". She was a principal of the Royal Ballet, and made guest appearances with other companies before retiring from dancing in 1995. Now Ms. Harvey is Artistic Director, American"
"to the evolution of ballet technique. In 1940, San Francisco Ballet became the first American company to stage a complete production of ""Swan Lake"". The enormously successful production starred Lew Christensen as Prince Siegfried, Jacqueline Martin as Odette, and Janet Reed as Odile. Willam Christensen based his choreography on the Petipa-Ivanov production, turning to San Francisco's large population of Russian émigrés, headed by Princess and Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia, to help him ensure that the production succeeded in its goal of preserving Russian culture in San Francisco. Several notable productions have diverged from the original and its 1895 revival:"
"one divertissement to the next ... almost visionary."" However, while the composer showed considerable aptitude in writing music that focused on the drama of the story, the demand for set pieces undercut his potential for complete success. The lengthy divertissements he supplied for two of the ballet's four acts display a ""commendable variety of character"" but divert action (and audience attention) away from the main plot. Moreover, Brown adds, the formal dance music is uneven, some of it ""quite ordinary, a little even trite."" Despite these handicaps, ""Swan Lake"" gives Tchaikovsky many opportunities to showcase his talent for melodic writing"
"spite of this, the notation for ""Swan Lake"", made between April 1906 and April 1907, documents Ivanov's original 1895 scheme. The first production outside of Russia of the full-length Petipa/Ivanov production of ""Swan Lake"" was staged by Nicholas Sergeyev for the Vic-Wells Ballet (today the Royal Ballet) in 1934, a production which retained Ivanov's original version of the ""Grand Adagio"" as a ""Pas de deux à Trois"", but over time the company chose to dance it as a ""pas de deux"", which is today the tradition. One critic who viewed the 1895 premiere wrote of this ""pas"": ""Legnani was as"
"of Music and Musicians"", ""traditionally played in a halting, hesitant style that appears to have been no part of Delibes's conception."" Tchaikovsky's ""Swan Lake"" was written just before ""Sylvia"" was released and is generally considered one of the best ballets of the era. However, Tchaikovsky himself preferred ""Sylvia"" to his own work, calling his own masterpiece ""poor stuff in comparison"". Tchaikovsky said to Sergei Taneyev, ""I was ashamed. If I had known this music early then, of course, I would not have written ""Swan Lake"""". Choreographically, ""Sylvia"" was also ahead of its time. Merante's 1876 choreography (and all subsequent) was"
"has been historically credited to the great Danseur of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet Vakhtang Chabukiani, who it has been said was the first to dance the solo in the 1930s at the Kirov, though most likely he had learned the variation from Gorsky. Today the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's score for ""Swan Lake"" has this variation titled with a rubric that says ""Variation of Chabukiani"", and this same solo is used by nearly every company when they perform ""The Black Swan Pas de Deux"", though there are often differences in the music regarding orchestration from production to production (for example, the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet's"
"the dual role of Odette/Odile in ""Swan Lake"". After three performances, she was so dissatisfied with the choreography of Julius Reisinger that she asked for new material for the role of Odile in act 3. With permission from the producers, she traveled from Moscow to Saint Petersburg to ask Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Theaters, to set a ""pas de deux"" for Odile and Siegfried to replace the ""pas de six"" that functioned as the ""grand pas"" in act 3. This he did, using music written by Ludwig Minkus. Upon learning this, Tchaikovsky was angered by the idea"
"reviewer spoke of her ""regal amplitude and attack"" in the ""Serenade"" by George Balanchine at the London Coliseum in 2015. Of her performance at Sadler's Wells as Odette, the lead rôle in Tchaikovsky's ""Swan Lake"", in 2015, ""The Times"" wrote that her dancing was ""frail and beautiful and ... completely alluring"", while her technique was ""a fabulous combination of control and flamboyance""; the ""Daily Telegraph"" called it ""a lovely legato performance"". Céline Gittens Céline Gittens is a Trinidadian ballerina. She is a principal dancer at the Birmingham Royal Ballet, in Birmingham, England. Gittens was born in Trinidad, where her mother"
"Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Her mother was of Mexican ancestry. Cynthia Harvey Cynthia Harvey (born May 17, 1957) is an American dance teacher and former ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. Harvey was born in California, and joined American Ballet Theatre in 1974. Her roles included Odette/Odile in ""Swan Lake"". While Mikhail Baryshnikov was the artistic director at ABT, he personally selected her to perform as the prima ballerina in Baryshnikov's filmed production of ""Don Quixote"". She was a principal of the Royal Ballet, and made guest appearances with other companies before"
"writes that while the two composers shared similar talents, the Russian's passion places him in a higher league than that of the Frenchman. Where Delibes' music remains decorative, Tchaikovsky's touches the senses and achieves a deeper significance. Tchaikovsky's three ballets, Maes says, forced an aesthetic re-evaluation of music for that genre. Brown calls Tchaikovsky's first ballet, ""Swan Lake"", ""a very remarkable and bold achievement."" The genre on the whole was mainly ""a decorative spectacle"" when ""Swan Lake"" was written, which made Tchaikovsky's attempt to ""incorporate a drama that was more than a convenient series of incidents for mechanically shifting from"
"Tomasson's direction, San Francisco Ballet has been recognized as one of the most innovative ballet companies in the world due to its early and frequent commissioning of new works by aspiring choreographers around the globe, the breadth of its repertory—spanning classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and contemporary ballet—and the diversity of its company members. The ""Financial Times"" noted in 2012, ""Tomasson ... helped shatter the distinction between the US top companies and so-called 'regional companies. Over a span of more than 25 years, Tomasson has staged acclaimed full-length productions of classics including ""Swan Lake"" (1988, 2009); ""The Sleeping Beauty"" (1990); ""Romeo"
"Berlin State Ballet), with Iana Salenko Prince Siegfried (""Swan Lake"", choreography by Vyacheslav Gordeev) Count Albrecht (""Giselle"", with Kristina Kretova) 2012 ""Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada"" Prince Siegfried (""Swan Lake"", choreography by Yuri Grigorovich) ""Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., US"" Frantz (""Coppélia"", choreography by Sergei Vikharev) ""Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, US"" Prince Siegfried (""Swan Lake"", choreography by Yuri Grigorovich) 2013 The Leading Pair (""Classical Symphony"", choreography by Yuri Possokhov) Five Pairs (""Dream of Dream"", choreography by Jorma Elo) Apollo (""Apollon Musagète"", choreography by George Balanchine) Prince Siegfried (""Swan Lake""), with Anna Antonicheva Prince Siegfried (""Swan Lake"" by"
"Julius Reisinger Vaclav (Wentsel), or Jules or Julius Wentsel Reisinger (1828 – 1892) is paradoxical figure in the history of ballet. This prolific choreographer, an author of more than twenty works on various European stages, directed the Moscow company of the Bolshoi Theatre. He is linked with two memorable events: the first stage production of Tchaikovsky's ballet ""Swan Lake"" and the production of the first ballet performance for the opening of the Prague National Theatre in 1884. His work on ""Swan Lake"" was considered unsuccessful by the critics of the day but not necessarily unsuccessful by the theatre-going public—after all,"
"1973), Nutcracker (1966), Spartacus (1968), Swan Lake (1969), Ivan the Terrible (1975), Angara (1976), Romeo and Juliet (1979), The Golden Age (1982), and Raymonda (1984). He also designed Sergeyev's ""Raymonda"" (Kirov, 1948), ""Swan Lake"" (Kirov, 1950), and ""The Sleeping Beauty"" (Kirov, 1952) and Vainonen's ""The Nutcracker"" (Kirov, 1954). American reviewers, writing of touring Soviet productions, praised Mr. Virsaladze's designs for their grand scale, tastefulness, sensitivity to period and style and for often furthering the action of the ballet. Simon Virsaladze Simon (Soliko) Virsaladze () (Tbilisi, 24 January 1909 – Tbilisi, 9 February 1989) was a Georgian and one of the"
"""Swan Lake"" (2016), Oskar Antunez' ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"" (2011, 2018), Mikail Folkine's ""The Dying Swan"" (2012, 2014), the ""Pas de trois des Odalisques"" and ""Medora"" variation from Joseph Mazilier's ""Le Corsaire"" (2014, 2017), ""Paquita"" (2015), ""Blue Bird and Princess Florine"" pas de deux from ""The Sleeping Beauty"" (2017), ""Giselle"" (2015), and George Balanchine's ""Valse-Fantaisie"". American Midwest Ballet American Midwest Ballet, formerly Ballet Nebraska, is a professional ballet company located in Omaha, Nebraska. The company's season typically consists of three mainstage productions including an annual mixed-repertory production entitled ""Momentum"", ""The Nutcracker"", and a full-length story ballet. The company also tours"
"bonds were destined to be broken by Odette. In the end, Odette is left in her bonds as a swan due to the prince’s misguided faithlessness. • Premiere on 27 October 1996 at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. • New York City Ballet opened on 29 April 1999. The sets were created by the Danish painter Per Kirkeby, who ""replaced opulence with a mood of impending disaster"" (Cahill). In this version of ""Swan Lake"" the sets suggest more of a painful feeling, with thorn bushes and cobwebs rather than a magical lake or a palace. Also, instead of using"