We appreciated Swan Lake performed by the American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center in New York City, on June 25, 2010.
Swan Lake was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as a commission by Vladimir Begichev received by the Russian Imperial Theatre in Moscow during 1875. It is considered one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous ballet compositions as well as Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker.
However, like the Nutcracker, Swan Lake didn’t succeed at the first performance since the music was too complicated and not suitable for ballet and also lacked a good the conductor and dancers. The choreograper was Julius (Wentzel) Reisinger and Odette-Odile was Pelagias Karpakova. Only two years after the death of Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake was revived and famous choreographers Petipa and Ivanov modified Swan Lake to the reversion which is known today.
There are a few opinions as to the origins of Swan Lake, one is the legend of the Swan-Maiden, dating to ancient Greece, and which appeared in different forms in the eastern and the western literature. The other is Lohengrin, the opera by Richard Wagner.
The American Ballet Theatre first performed Act II of Swan Lake with choreography by Anton Dolin at the Center Theatre in New York City on January 16, 1940. The Swan Lake I saw this time was revived by a choreographer Kevin Mckenzie after the Marius Petipa and Ivanov version. This production was first staged on May 21, 1993 at the Metropolitan Opera House.
In Act I: the prince’s birth party, the dancers with colorful costumes waltzed peacefully. Then Pas de Trois with a man and two ladies was beautiful. Each of them performed solo as well. Interestingly, Prince Siegfried showed many times his back towards the audience, although we learned that ballet performers usually never do that. Act I as the whole was gorgeous, and approximately twenty ladies holding ribbons circled around the bell with chasse in order to ring it in the ending.
I was impressed the most by Act II. When Odette appeared for the first time it was amazing. She used many facial expressions and the movements of the arms to show her gradually opening mind towards Prince Siegfried. The dance of Odette and Prince Siegfried was so passionate and while he held her, she moved her arms like wings of the swan. Meanwhile, approximately thirty swan performers in the dark stage. Besides Odette, all swan performers were dressed in the same costumes, and they made many forms on the stage. For example, they lined up in the center and on both sides of the stage in three lines, and then broke up seemed to dance free from the center of the stage. Sometimes they run from the side to the other side one after the other. The music of No.10 and No.14, “Scene:Moderato”, after the short harp instruction, the solo oboe was familiar to me. When Odette positioned like arabesque in the center, the other swans fanned out on the stage.
In the next part, four swans performed holding hands together. They performed very quick echappe and passé which we have learned in the class. In the end of Act II, Odette performed solo and did the passé many times.
On Act III, the stage was again gorgeous and there were performances from Hungry, Spain, Russia, and Italy. Each performance included the traditional dance styles of their country and was interesting. The performance of Spain reminded me Spanish dance. In the end, the Black Swan came to perform with the Prince.
What was amazing was, although Odette and the Black Swan were performed by the same person, she gave totally different impression from Odette by her dance and eye expression. Compared to Odette, who was pure and quiet, the Black Swan was seductive and aggressive.
Including quick techniques, the Black Swan turned many times, more than twenty-five times, and the audience were impressed. Also the Prince turned a lot of times, and I could see more clearly that he used the spot technique which we learned in the class.
In the last part, Act IV, what I saw was the tragic version while there are two versions; the happy end which Odette is released from the witchcraft and the tragic which both Odette and Prince Siegfried commit suicide. The music emphasized the sad atmosphere.
Overall, the composition was impressive and I enjoyed it a lot.
I had seen another Swan Lake in Japan before; however, the Swan Lake of the Ballet Theater was absolutely beautiful. The group of the swans with their fine movement of arms and hands looked as if real swans were dancing on the stage. The atmosphere of the stage and hall were also perfect to enjoy the performance.
