With Nutcracker, Swan Lake is certainly the star of the ballets. There are many groups of dancers who regularly come to France to perform on Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky’s iconic score during the end-of-year celebrations. Because yes, at the mere mention of the Swan Lake, they are familiar notes that immediately resonate in our minds. Pieces like The Swan Song Where The Dance of the Little Swans contributed to the popularity of this unforgettable music. First ballet written by a symphonic composer, Swan Lake has continued to be taken up by a plethora of choreographers and dancers over the years. In 2020, it is the turn of choreographer Angelin Preljocaj to deliver his own adaptation, broadcast this Friday, December 30, 2022 at 10:45 p.m. on France 5.
Swan Lake : chaotic beginnings
In 1877, the Imperial Bolshoi Theater commissioned Tchaikovsky to write ballet music, a genre once considered minor. This must accompany the choreography of Julius Wenzel Reisinger. Tchaikovsky therefore composed a score from a libretto inspired by German medieval legends. The story is well known: Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, a young girl under the influence of a spell. By day she is a white swan, by night she is reincarnated as a woman. Only an eternal love can annihilate this terrible curse… On paper, it’s wonderful. And yet, the first interpretation of the Swan Lake is a complete failure, the choreography failing to sublimate the music.
The continuation under this advertisement
Multiple Versions
In 1893, the Frenchman Michel-Victor-Marius-Alphonse Petipa reworked Tchaikovsky’s composition in memory of him, who died the same year. Two years later, he gave birth to a new version for the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. From its creation to the present day, Swan Lake knows a myriad of adaptations, each more different than the next. But in 1984, Rudolf Nureyev stood out from his elders and offered the ballet of the Opéra national de Paris an immediately cult work.
Many passages on the big screen
His fame goes well beyond the world of danceSwan Lake has also shone in the cinema. In black swan by Darren Aronofsky, accused of plagiarism, Natalie Portman lends her features to a star dancer chosen to embody Odette. She is overwhelming and is rightly rewarded with the Oscar for best actress in 2011. The ballet also appears in Billy Elliot, to show, at the very end, that the young dancer has succeeded in fulfilling his dream. In Love! Value! Compassion!, a choreographer asks gay friends to reinterpret the famous choreography. Finally, Tchaikovsky’s famous melody also resounds in animated films like The Swan and the Princess. Proving, if necessary, how much this work has marked the history of the arts.
The continuation under this advertisement
