Swan Lake

SWAN LAKE

“Ballet is also a symphony”
Pyotr Tchaikovsky

“The Ballet of ballets” - this is how the masterpiece of Piotr Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake is often referred to.
Since very few records concerning the first production of the work have survived, there can be only speculation about who was the author of the original libretto or the original idea of the ballet. The most authoritative theory claims Vladimir Begichev, director of the Moscow Imperial Theatres during the time that the ballet was originally produced, to be the one, and Vasily Geltser, Premiere Danseur of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre to be his co-author.

First production

In 1875 Begichev commissioned the score of Swan Lake from Tchaikovsky for a rather modest fee of 800 rubles, and began to choose artists that would participate in the creation of the ballet. The choreographer assigned to the production was the Czech Julius Reisinger (1827-1892), who had been engaged as Balletmaster to the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre (today known as the Bolshoi Ballet) since 1873. Most of the Julius Reisinger 's previous work for the company had not been successful due to their mediocre quality.
Because of its music, Swan Lake proved to be the first of its kind - a ballet set to the score of a symphonic composer. Up to that point, and for some time afterwards, composers known as “specialists” - composers who were highly skilled at scoring the light, decorative, melodious, and rhythmically clear music that was at that time considered to be appropriate for ballet, - always wrote scores for ballets. Today, the most famous of these composers are the Italian Cesare Pugni and the Austrian Leon Minkus.
Tchaikovsky studied the music of these "specialists" before setting to work on Swan Lake in order to grasp the musical needs of ballet, and it is interesting to note that he had a rather negative opinion of their music until he studied it in detail. Tchaikovsky most admired the ballet music of such composers as Leo Delibes, Adolphe Adam, and later, Riccardo Drigo. It is interesting to mention also that Tchaikovsky re-used material from an opera that he had abandoned in 1868 - The Voyevoda - for Swan Lake.
By March of 1876 the score was complete, and rehearsals began.
Swan Lake (or The Lake of the Swans as it was called then) had its premiere on February 20, 1877. It was given as a benefit performance for the Ballerina Pelagia Karpakova, who created the role of Odette, with the Bolshoi Theatre's Premiere Danseur Victor Gillert as Prince Siegfried. It is not known for certain whether or not Karpakova danced the part Odile, which is today almost always danced by the same Ballerina who dances Odette. The poster of the original production credits the role of Odette to Karpakova, while the character of Odile is listed with three asterisks. It is highly unlikely that Karpakova did not dance Odile, as it is known that she participated in the all of the dances associated with the character in the third act.
The premiere was not well received, with near unanimous criticism concerning the dancers, orchestra, and decor. Unfortunately Tchaikovsky's masterful score was lost in the debacle of the poor production, and though there were a few critics who recognized its virtues, most considered it to be far to complicated for ballet. In spite of the poor reaction to the premiere, the ballet nevertheless continued being performed.

Subsequent productions

Julius Reisinger left Moscow in 1879, and his successor as Balletmaster was Joseph Peter Hansen. Hansen, to his credit, made considerable efforts in the late 1870s/early 1880s to salvage Swan Lake, and on January 13, 1880 he presented a new production of the ballet for his own benefit performance. The part of Odette/Odile was danced by Evdokia Kalmykova, a student of the Moscow Imperial Ballet School, with Alfred Bekefi as Prince Siegfried. This production had far bigger success than the original, though it was by no means a great one. Hansen presented another version of Swan Lake on October 28, 1882, again with Kalmykova as Odette/Odile. This version of Swan Lake was given only four times, the final performance being on January 2, 1883, and soon the ballet was dropped from the repertory altogether.
In all, Swan Lake was given a total of forty-one performances between its premiere and the final performance of - a rather lengthy run for a ballet that was so poorly received upon its premiere.

Petipa/Ivanov/Drigo edition of 1895

In the 1880s Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, commissioned Tchaikovsky several of his greatest works - the operas The Enchantress (1886), and The Queen of Spades (1890); in 1887 - score for Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, a ballet that would prove to be one of both Tchaikovsky and Petipa's greatest masterworks; immediately after The Sleeping Beauty, premiered on January 15, 1890, which became a great success, Vsevolozhsky commissioned a second score for a ballet and an opera from the composer - The Nutcracker and Iolanthe, which premiered together on a double bill on December 6, 1892.
Prior to commissioning Tchaikovsky to score The Sleeping Beauty, Vsevolozhsky had considered reviving one-act of Swan Lake for the 1886-1887 season. Though this production never materialized, Vsevolozhsky continued showing interest in Swan Lake, and he even designed costumes for a possible revival of the work that would be produced by Petipa (Vsevolozhsky was a talented costume designer, having designed the costumes for the first productions of both The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as Raymonda, among many other ballets). Tchaikovsky was delighted at the prospect of Swan Lake being revived by Petipa, of whom he had the greatest respect, proclaiming that "never with anyone but Petipa would I produce ballets".
Tchaikovsky died on November 6, 1893, just when plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come close to realization.
Vsevolozhsky then planned a memorial concert to be given at the Mariinsky Theatre in honor of the composer, with the bill consisting of the first act of Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans, his overture from Romeo and Juliet, his Coronation Cantata, and the second scene of Swan Lake, in a staging by Lev Ivanov, Second Balletmaster to the Imperial Ballet. Ivanov's choreography for the memorial concert was unanimously hailed as wonderful.
The Ballerina who danced Odette was the Italian Pierina Legnani.
Soon after Legnani was named Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Imperial Ballet, and it was because of her great talent that a full revival of Swan Lake was soon planned for her benefit performance in the 1894-1895 season. Ivanov and Petipa chose to collaborate on the production, with Ivanov retaining his dances for the second scene while choreographing the fourth, and with Petipa staging the first and third scenes. Ivanov was also entrusted with staging the Neopolitan Dance and the Hungarian Dance in the Grand Divertessment of the third scene.
Tchaikovsky's brother Modest was called upon to make the required changes to the ballet's libretto, the most prominent being his revision of the ballet's finale - instead of the lovers simply drowning at the hand of the wicked Von Rothbart as in the original 1877 scenario, Odette commits suicide by drowning herself, with Prince Siegfried choosing to die as well, rather than live without her, and soon the lovers' spirits are reunited in an apotheosis. The most crucial changes were done to the music. Modest Tchaikovsky recommended that Riccardo Drigo, a celebrated composer in his own right and chief conductor of the Imperial Ballet and director of the Imperial Italian Opera, would revise Tchaikovsky's score. With instruction from Petipa and Ivanov Drigo set to work. All was ready by the beginning of 1895, and the ballet had its premiere on January 15. Pierina Legnani danced Odette/Odile, with Pavel Gerdt as Prince Siegfried, Alexei Bulgakov as Von Rothbart, and Alexander Oblakov as Benno.
It is M. Petipa and L. Ivanov legacy upon which all the subsequent productions and versions of Swan Lake draw.

Swan Lake in Tbilisi

In Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre the first performance of Swan Lake (second act) took place in 1907 and was presented by the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg on a benefit performance for Olga Preobrajenskaya. She Preobrajenskaya performed the role of Odette/Odile herself, and Pavel Kozlov danced the role of Siegfried.
In 1912 ensemble of dancers from the Imperial Ballet under leadership of Fedor Lopukhov performed the third and the forth acts of the ballet with Lubov Egorova and Sergei Andrianov in the main roles.
Michael Mordkin started staging a new production of Swan Lake for the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1922, but he emigrated from the Soviet Union soon, and the production was brought to a premiere by his student Igor Moiseev in 1923.
In 1928 the Italian choreographer R. Balanoti produced Swan Lake for the Georgian company again.
Two great Soviet dancers and balletmasters Vakhtang Chabukiani and Konstantin Sergeev staged their own acclaimed versions of Swan Lake in 1945 and 1975 accordingly.
New version of Swan Lake for the State Ballet of Georgia was created in 2005 by Alexei Fadeyechev, former star and former Artistic Director of the Bolshoi, son of one the greatest Siegfrieds of all times Nikolai Fadeyechev.