History of Swan Lake
Swan Lake enjoys such a legendary position in the world dance repertoire that we forget it had somewhat turbulent and difficult beginnings. It was commissioned in 1875 by the Moscow Imperial Theatre Intendant Vladimir Begichev. The original choreographer was Julius Reisinger who apparently had little collaboration with the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The ballet premiered in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow when the reviews described the music as un-danceable and the choreography as unimaginative. Over the next 6 years it survived with different productions and new choreography and then was more or less forgotten.
In 1895 Marius Petipa – ballet master at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg decided to restage the ballet. Petipa was aware previous productions of Swan Lake had not been totally successful and had asked his assistant Lev Ivanov to choreograph Act II as a memorial tribute in 1894 following the death of Tchaikovsky. This sensitive re working of Act ll showed off Ivanov’s lyrical and musical choreography and was a great success.
For the complete re-staging Petipa took charge of Acts l and III himself. He cast Italian ballerina Pierina Legnani as Odette/Odile and Russian Pavel Gerdt as Siegfried, incorporating in to the choreography the impressive and now legendary 32 fouettes which was a tour de force and quickly learned by the Russian dancers of the time.
From then on the greatness of Swan Lake – both for the genius of its music and inspiration of its two choreographers – has become one of the masterpieces of classical ballet.
