The date is January 27, 1895 and history is being made at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg as the world waits for the premiere of Marius Petipa and Ivanov’s Swan Lake. Many today do not realize that this production was a revival and not the first Swan Lake. The original production premiered March of 1877 at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. This rendition was choreographed by Julius Reisinger and composed by Ilyich Tchaikovsky. However, according to many records, the seriousness of Tchaikovsky’s music along with Reisinger’s choreography confused many and clashed terribly. A later version choreographed by Joseph Hansen appeared which welcomed a little more interest than Reisinger’s production, however, neither of these two productions did Tchaikovsky’s score justice. That is, until Ivanov and Petipa’s revival which helped Swan Lake reach its full potential. Swan Lake is a story about two girls Odette and Odile, who resemble each other so much, they were often played by the same dancer. Odette is under a spell which causes her to be a swan by day and a woman by night and a prince named Siegfried falls in love with her and promises to break the spell. However, the prince is tricked by the magician who cast the spell, Rothbart, and traditionally the production ends with both Odette and Prince Siegfried dying. Although, many did not first recognized Tchaikovsky’s work as a masterpiece, through the many iterations of Swan Lake, his work would soon be appreciated to its full extent.
Tchaikovsky was first asked to compose Swan Lake by the Bolshoi Theatre between 1875 and 1876. He was very familiar with the Russian and European legends of young maidens turning into birds and first showed interest in these legends when he composed The Lake of the Swans, a little ballet for his niece and nephew. Unfortunately, it seems as though Tchaikovsky and Reisinger, the choreographer, did not collaborate well, causing the music and choreography to clash. Many critics considered Tchaikovsky’s music to be “too noisy and symphonic” and few recognized his masterful score for what it truly was. Ultimately, this left Tchaikovsky disappointed and, even though it went through another revival by Joseph Hansen, it was dropped from the Bolshoi repertoire in 1883.
Only after 18 years had passed and many other revivals failed would Swan Lake become the success we recognize it for today. After working with Petipa for The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky was overjoyed when Petipa showed interest in reviving his first ballet Swan Lake. Unfortunately, Ilyich Tchaikovsky died November 6, 1893 in the middle of planning with Petipa. However, with the approval from Tchaikovsky’s younger brother, Riccardo Drigo was able to revise the score, and Petipa and Ivanov began recreating Swan Lake, splitting up Acts 1-4 amongst themselves. The first presentation of the new revision of Swan Lake was presented at a memorial concert for Tchaikovsky in February of 1894 at the Mariinsky Theatre. They presented the second scene, choreographed by Ivanov and starred Pierina Legani as the role of Odette. The full production of Swan Lake premiered on January 27, 1895 again starring Legnani as the dual role of Odette and Odile.
Since Petipa and Ivanov’s revival of Tchaikovsky, there were many more iterations of Swan Lake created. The first iteration of Petipa and Ivanov’s production was done in 1901 for the Imperial Bolshoi Theater by Alexander Gorsky. It was also staged in the west at the Hippodrome Theatre in London and 1910. Sergei Diaghilev restaged a version of Swan Lake with just two acts, once for the Ballet Russes at the Royal Opera House, Covet Garden, and another time in Monte Carlo in 1924. In the first production, Matila Kschessinskaya starred as Odette/Odile and Vaslav Ninjinky as Prince Siegfried. Bronslava Nijinska, Nijinsky’s sister, also had a notable production in the early 20th century for the State Opera Theater in Kiev. Also, during this time Petipa and Ivanov’s version was notated in the Stepanov notation method and is now part of the Sergeyev Collection.
Since then, many modern iterations of Swan Lake have been created. The most well-known revisions include George Balanchine’s production for the New York City Ballet. Lincoln Kirstein and Balanchine first hesitated when asked to stage Swan Lake and only went through with the production because they were promised a more thrilling piece in the near future. Balanchine’s one act was inspired by Ivanov’s choreography for Act 2 but uses music from both Acts 2 and 4. Rudolf Nureyev’s also did a version in 1964 for the Vienna Staatsoper Ballet. This was a huge part of Nureyev’s career as he added a solo for the prince in both Act 1 and 2. This gave the male dancer a major role and created a character with his own identity, rather than being just a partner of a principle dancer. The male dancer, in this case, Rudolf Nureyev, was now considered an equal to his partner, Margot Fonteyn. This iteration was performed November of 1963 at the Champs Elysees Theatre in Paris. There are countless other revivals of Swan Lake including Konstantin Sergeyev’s 1950 production for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich’s production for the Bolshoi Ballet, and Kevin McKenzie’s 2000 production for the American Ballet Theatre.
The important things to note about all of these different productions are the various variety of endings. Some of these modern productions use happy ending in which the prince and Odette are reunited, while other use tragic endings where either the prince or Odette dies. Furthermore, many productions were kept at the original length of 4 acts while others were shortened to 1 act productions. After many iterations, finally, Tchaikovsky’s score is being recognized for the masterpiece it is and Swan Lake is still preformed today in many famous theaters around the world.