Ballet "Swan Lake". Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" is one of the symbols of the great Russian art, a masterpiece that has become a pearl of the treasury of world music and a "visiting card" of the Bolshoi Theater. Every note of the work is saturated with suffering. The intensity of tragedy and the beautiful melody, characteristic of the creations of Pyotr Ilyich, have become the property of all music lovers and lovers of choreography in the world. The circumstances of this magnificent ballet are no less dramatic than the chords of the Lake Scene.

Ordering a ballet

The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a strange time for ballet. Today, when it has become an integral part of the classics, it is hard to imagine that a few decades ago this art form was treated as something secondary, unworthy of the attention of serious musicians. P. I. Tchaikovsky, being not only a famous composer, but also a connoisseur of music, nevertheless loved ballet and often attended performances, although he himself had no desire to write in this genre. But something unforeseen happened, against the background of certainfinancial difficulties, an order from the directorate appeared, for which they promised a considerable amount. The fee was promised generous, eight hundred rubles. Pyotr Ilyich served at the conservatory, and in those days, education workers did not live in luxury either, although, of course, the concepts of prosperity were different. The composer set to work. The ballet "Swan Lake" (at first the name "Isle of Swans" was conceived) was designed on the basis of German legends.

Wagner and Tchaikovsky

Since the action took place in Germany, P. I. Tchaikovsky, in order to feel the mysterious atmosphere of the Teutonic sagas and castles, in which knights and beautiful ladies were quite ordinary characters, went to this country the poverty of the content of the then professors). In the city of Bayreuth, during the performance (they gave the “Ring of the Nibelungs”), a glorious acquaintance of two geniuses took place - Peter Ilyich and Richard Wagner. Tchaikovsky was delighted with Lohengrin and other operas of his famous colleague, about which he did not fail to inform his German colleague in musical notation. The Russian genius decided to call his main character Siegfried, against which the great German did not mind.

Another enigmatic German, Ludwig II

There was another mysterious character who seriously influenced the future ballet "Swan Lake". Wagner was patronized by the Bavarian monarch, Ludwig II, a strange man, but very talented in his own way. Building mysterious, fantastic and unusual castles, he created an atmosphere of the Middle Ages, very consonant with the soul of the great Russian composer. Eventhe death of the king, which occurred under extremely mysterious circumstances, fit perfectly into the outline of the life story of this extraordinary and charming personality. The death of an extraordinary monarch made P. I. Tchaikovsky's depressing action, he was oppressed by the question of whether he had brought, albeit unintentionally, trouble on his head with a gloomy story that he wanted to tell people.

Creative process

In ballet as an action, choreography has always been considered the most important aspect. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, this tradition was broken by the ballet "Swan Lake". The content, however, was also of no small importance, it emphasized the semantic load of beautiful music. It is tragic and fits into the definition of unrequited love. Since the theater directorate acted as the customer for the Swan Lake ballet, the libretto was entrusted to Vladimir Begichev, the head of the Bolshoi. He was assisted by V. Geltser, a dancer, and later the author himself joined the creative process. The score was ready by 1876, and with all the care shown when creating the ballet, P. I. Tchaikovsky, most likely, did not imagine that this work would be included in a number of masterpieces that immortalized his name.

Characters, time and place

The place and time of action are designated as fabulous. There are few main characters, only thirteen. Among them are the imperious princess with her son Siegfried, the latter's friend, von Sommerstern, his mentor Wolfgang, von Stein with his wife, von Schwartzfels, also with his wife, a runner,herald, master of ceremonies, swan queen, she is the enchanted beautiful Odette, like a drop of water similar to her Odile and her father Rothbart, an evil sorcerer. And, of course, secondary characters, including little swans. In general, not so few artists appear on the stage for four acts.

Storyline

Young, cheerful and rich Siegfried is having a good time with friends. He has a celebration, a day of coming of age. But a flock of swans appears, and something draws the young prince into the forest after it. Odette, having taken on a human form, captivates him with her beauty and tells about the deceit of Rothbart, who bewitched her. The prince makes a vow of eternal love, but the queen mother has her own plan for the matrimonial arrangement of her sons' fate. At the ball, they introduce him to Odile, a girl very similar to the swan queen. But the similarity is limited to appearance, and soon Siegfried realizes his mistake. He enters into a duel with the villain Rothbart, but the forces are unequal. In the finale, the lovers die, the villain (in the reincarnation of an owl), too. Such is the plot. Swan Lake became an outstanding ballet not because of its unusualness, but because of Tchaikovsky's magical music.

Failed Premiere

In 1877, the premiere took place at the Bolshoi. Pyotr Ilyich looked forward to the date of February 20 with anxiety and impatience. There were grounds for excitement, Wenzel Reisinger took up the production, having successfully failed all previous premiere performances of the theater. Hopes that this time he has everythingturns out, it wasn't enough. And so it happened. Not all contemporaries appreciated the magnificent music, psychologically perceiving the action as a whole. The efforts of the ballerina Polina Karpakova in creating the image of Odette were not crowned with success. The corps de ballet has earned a lot of caustic remarks of criticism for inappropriate waving of the arms. Costumes and scenery were underdeveloped. Only on the fifth attempt, after changing the soloist (she was danced by Anna Sobeshchanskaya, a prima ballerina from the Bolshoi Theater troupe), was it possible to somehow captivate the audience. P. I. Tchaikovsky was dejected by the failure.

Mariinsky performance

It so happened that the ballet "Swan Lake" was appreciated only after the death of the author, who was not destined to enjoy his triumph. For eight years, the production ran on the Bolshoi stage without much success, until it was finally removed from the repertoire. Ballet master Marius Petipa began work on the new stage version together with the author, assisted by Lev Ivanov, who possessed truly extraordinary abilities and an excellent musical memory.

The script was rewritten anew, all the choreographic numbers were rethought. The death of the great composer shocked Petipa, he fell ill (other personal circumstances contributed to this), but, having recovered, he set himself the goal of creating such a ballet "Swan Lake" that would become a miraculous monument to P. I. Tchaikovsky. He succeeded.

Already on February 17, 1894, shortly after the death of the composer, at the evening of his memory, Petipa's student L. Ivanov offered the public a new interpretation of the secondact, described by critics as a brilliant breakthrough. Then, in January 1895, the ballet was staged at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. This time the triumph was extraordinary. The new ending, happy, was somewhat discordant with the general spirit of the work. It was proposed by the brother of the late composer, Modest Tchaikovsky. In the future, the troupe returned to the original version, which is staged to this day with the same success in theaters around the world.

The fate of the ballet

The failure with Swan Lake, apparently, was the reason why the composer did not take on ballets for thirteen years. Tchaikovsky was also perhaps embarrassed by the fact that the genre was still considered lightweight, in contrast to the operas, symphonies, suites, cantatas and concertos he preferred to create. In total, the composer wrote three ballets, the remaining two are The Sleeping Beauty, which premiered in 1890, and a couple of years later The Nutcracker was presented to the public.

As for the Swan Lake, its life has become long, and most likely eternal. Throughout the twentieth century, ballet has not left the stage of the leading theaters of the world. Outstanding modern choreographers A. Gorsky, A. Vaganova, K. Sergeev and many others realized their ideas during its production. The revolutionary nature of the approach to the musical part of the work prompted the search for new creative ways in dance, confirming the world leadership of Russian ballet. Art connoisseurs from different countries, visiting Moscow, consider the Bolshoi Theater to be an indispensable point of visiting. "Swan Lake" - a performance that does not leaveno one is indifferent, to see it is the dream of all balletomanes. Hundreds of outstanding ballerinas consider the part of Odette to be the peak of their creative career.

If Pyotr Ilyich knew…