Swan Lake

Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое озеро) is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Even though it didn’t do well at first, it is now one of the most loved ballets in the world.

The story comes from Russian and German folk tales. It tells the tale of Odette, a princess who is turned into a swan by a mean sorcerer’s curse.

The ballet was first performed by the Bolshoi Ballet on 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The dance moves for this first show were made by Julius Reisinger.

Today, most ballet companies use the version from 1895, created by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. This version was first shown on 15 January 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this new version, Riccardo Drigo changed some of Tchaikovsky’s music.

History

Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky created the music for Swan Lake in 1875–76. The story comes from Russian and German folk tales and tells of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by a bad sorcerer’s curse.

The ballet did not succeed when it first appeared, but it is now one of the most popular ballets ever. The tale was based on old stories, and many ideas in it come from other legends and older ballets. Different people have argued about who really created the story for the ballet, but it was first performed in Moscow in 1877.

Instrumentation

Swan Lake uses a big orchestra with many different instruments, just like orchestras from the late 1800s.

There are string instruments like violins, violas, cellos, and double basses, plus a harp. The woodwind section includes a piccolo, flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. The brass section has French horns, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and a tuba. Percussion instruments such as timpani, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, castanets, tam-tam, glockenspiel, and chimes are also used.

Roles

Here are the main characters in the ballet Swan Lake:

• Princess Odette – also called the Swan Queen, the White Swan, or the Swan Princess. She is a beautiful princess turned into a white swan by a spell.
• Prince Siegfried – a handsome prince who falls in love with Odette.
• Baron Von Rothbart – an evil sorcerer who put the curse on Odette.
• Odile – also known as the Black Swan, and Rothbart's daughter.
• Benno von Sommerstern – the prince’s friend.
• The Queen – Prince Siegfried’s mother.
• Wolfgang – the prince’s tutor.
• Baron von Stein and The Baroness – his wife.
• Freiherr von Schwarzfels and his wife.
• Plus a herald, a footman, and many court gentlemen and ladies, friends of the prince, heralds, guests, pages, villagers, servants, swans, and cygnets.

Over time, some character names have changed. For example, Benno von Sommerstern is often just called Benno, and Odette is sometimes called the Queen of the Swans. The reasons why Rothbart cursed Odette are not clearly explained in the ballet, and different versions of the story give different answers. Sometimes Rothbart is shown as an owl-like creature, and in some versions, he is defeated, while in others, he wins in the end.

Odile usually wears dark clothes and appears only in the third act. In most modern versions, she looks exactly like Odette because of Rothbart’s magic, so Prince Siegfried thinks she is Odette. In the very first production, two different dancers played Odette and Odile, and some modern versions do this too.

Synopsis

Swan Lake is usually shown in either four acts and four scenes or three acts and four scenes. The main difference in performances around the world is the ending, which is sometimes changed from sad to happy.

Some versions start with a scene showing how Odette first meets Rothbart, who turns her into a swan.

Act 1
Prince Siegfried is celebrating his birthday with friends and people from the village. His mother tells him he must choose a bride at a ball the next night. He is sad because he wants to marry for love, not because his mother tells him to. His friend Benno tries to cheer him up. Later, Benno sees swans flying and suggests they go hunt them. Siegfried and his friends take crossbows and go after the swans.

Act 2
Siegfried gets lost and finds himself at a lake. He sees swans land and aims his crossbow. One of the swans turns into a beautiful woman named Odette. She is afraid of him at first, but he promises not to hurt her. She tells him she and the other women are under a spell by an evil sorcerer named Rothbart. During the day, they are swans, and only at night by the lake can they change back into people. The spell can only be broken if someone who has never loved before promises to love Odette forever. Rothbart appears, and Siegfried tries to stop him, but Odette stops him because if Rothbart dies before the spell is broken, it can never be fixed. Siegfried breaks his crossbow and tries to earn Odette’s trust, and they fall in love. But when the sun rises, Odette and the other women turn back into swans.

Act 3
There is a big ball at the palace. Six princesses are presented to Prince Siegfried, but he is only interested in someone named Odile. Odette tries to warn him from a window, but he does not see her. He says he will marry Odile. Rothbart then shows him a magical vision of Odette, and Siegfried realizes his mistake.

Act 4
Odette is very upset. Siegfried returns and apologizes, but she is heartbroken. She decides she cannot stay a swan forever and chooses to die. Siegfried decides to die with her. They both jump into the lake and stay together forever, breaking the spell and ending Rothbart’s power.

Different versions of the story have different endings, some happy and some sad. In some, Odette and Siegfried live happily ever after. In others, they both die together.

Structure

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the ballet Swan Lake in 1875–76. The story comes from Russian and German folk tales. It tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse.

The music has different parts for each act. There are special dances and scenes, like the Waltz and the Dance of the Little Swans. The ballet was first performed in two acts, and today it is one of the most popular ballets in the world.

Adaptations and references

Live-action film

The opening credits for the first sound version of Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi includes a modified version of the Swan Theme from act 2. The same piece was later used for the credits of The Mummy (1932) as well as Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and is often used as a backing track for the silent film, Phantom of the Opera (1925). The film I Was an Adventuress (1940) includes a long sequence from the ballet. The documentary World Assembly of Youth features the New York City Ballet performing Black Swan at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in August 1951. El lago de los cisnes (1953) is a short film directed by Francisco Rovira Beleta and shot at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, featuring the participation of the International London Ballet. It is a screen adaptation of only the first two acts of the ballet. Mastera russkogo baleta (1953) is an episodic film directed by Herbert Rappaport that presents cinematic adaptations of three famous ballets, the first of which is Swan Lake, with Galina Ulanova in the role of Odette. Lebedinoe ozero (1957) is a ballet film choreographed by Asaf Messerer and directed by Zoja Tulub'eva, starring Maya Plisetskaya in the role of Odette. The plot of the 1965 British comedy film The Intelligence Men reaches its climax at a performance of the ballet, with an assassination attempt on the ballerina portraying Odette. The 1966 American political thriller film Torn Curtain directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews contains a scene from the ballet Swan Lake. The lead couple of the film, played by Newman and Andrews, are escaping from East Berlin during the Cold War and attend a performance of the ballet as part of their escape plan. They are spotted and reported to the police by the lead ballerina (Tamara Toumanova) during the ballet performance. Their dramatic escape from the theatre during the ballet is a high point of the film. In 1968–69, the Kirov Ballet along with Lenfilm studios produced Lebedinoe ozero, a filmed version of the ballet starring Yelena Yevteyeva as Odette. In the film Funny Girl (1968), Barbra Streisand, playing Fanny Brice, dances in a comedic spoof of Swan Lake. In the film A Woman Under The Influence (1974), Gena Rowlands, Mabel Longhetti dances in the garden with her children to Swan Lake and later hums the melody. The ballet is central to the plot of Étoile (1989). In Brain Donors (1992), the three main characters try and succeed in sabotaging a fictional production of the ballet. The 1998 Czech fantasy film Jezerní královna directed by Václav Vorlíček is a loose adaptation of the Swan Lake story. Odette (played by Jitka Schneiderová) is one of seven princesses kidnapped by the eponymous Queen of the Lake (Ivana Chýlková) to be her slaves, dancing for her underwater and transforming into swans on the surface. Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) focuses on two characters from Swan Lake—the Princess Odette, sometimes called the White Swan, and her evil duplicate, the witch Odile (the Black Swan), and takes its inspiration from the ballet's story, although it does not literally follow it. Clint Mansell's score contains music from the ballet, with more elaborate restructuring to fit the horror tone of the film. In Of Gods and Men (2011), the climactic Swan Lake music is played at the monks' Last Supper-reminiscent dinner. In the film T-34, music from Swan Lake could be heard while the main characters test-drive a captured T-34 for the Germans and pulling off ballet-style moves with the tank. As of August 2020, a live-action adaptation of the ballet is being produced by Mandeville Films, written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale and starring Felicity Jones with Universal Pictures set to distribute. The end of the ballet is in the film The Courier (2020). The ballet is referenced in the film Fast X (2023) by Jason Momoa's character Dante.

Animated theatrical and direct-to-video productions

Swan Lake, episode 60 of the Japanese anthology series Manga Fairytales of the World (1976–1979), produced by Dax International. Swan Lake (1981) is a feature-length anime produced by the Japanese company Toei Animation and directed by Koro Yabuki. The adaptation uses Tchaikovsky's score and remains relatively faithful to the story. Two separate English dubs were made, one featuring regular voice actors, and one using celebrities as the main principals (Pam Dawber as Odette, Christopher Atkins as Siegfried, David Hemmings as Rothbart, and Kay Lenz as Odile). The second dub was recorded at Golden Sync Studios and aired on American Movie Classics in December 1990 and The Disney Channel in January 1994. It was presently distributed in the United States by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. It was also distributed in France and the United Kingdom by Rouge Citron Production. Swan Lake (1994) is a 28-minute traditional two-dimensional animation narrated by Dudley Moore. It is one of five animations in the Storyteller's Classics series. Like the 1981 version, it also uses Tchaikovsky's music throughout and is quite faithful to the original story. What sets it apart is the climactic scene, in which the prince swims across the lagoon towards Rothbart's castle to rescue Odette, who is being held prisoner there. Rothbart points his finger at the prince and zaps him to turn him into a duck – but then, the narrator declares, "Sometimes, even magic can go very, very wrong." After a moment, the duck turns into an eagle and flies into Rothbart's castle, where the prince resumes his human form and engages Rothbart in battle. This animation was produced by Madman Movies for Castle Communications. The director was Chris Randall, the producer was Bob Burrows, the production co-ordinator was Lesley Evans and the executive producers were Terry Shand and Geoff Kempin. The music was performed by the Moscow State Orchestra. It was shown on TVOntario in December 1997 and was distributed on home video in North America by Castle Vision International, Orion Home Video and J.L. Bowerbank & Associates. The Swan Princess (1994) is a Nest Entertainment film based on the Swan Lake story. It stays fairly close to the original story, but does contain many differences. For example, instead of the Swan Maidens, we have the addition of sidekicks Puffin the puffin, Speed the tortoise, and Jean-Bob the frog. Several of the characters are renamed – Prince Derek instead of Siegfried, his friend Bromley instead of Benno and his tutor Rogers instead of Wolfgang; Derek's mother is named Queen Uberta. Another difference is Odette and Derek knowing each other from when they were children, which introduces us to Odette's father, King William and explains how and why Odette is kidnapped by Rothbart. The character Odile is replaced by an old hag (unnamed in this movie, but known as Bridget in the sequels), as Rothbart's sidekick until the end. Also, this version contains a happy ending, allowing both Odette and Derek to survive as humans once Rothbart is defeated. It has eleven sequels, Escape from Castle Mountain (1997), The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure (1998), Christmas (2012), A Royal Family Tale (2014), Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today (2016), Royally Undercover (2017), A Royal MyZtery (2018), Kingdom of Music (2019), A Royal Wedding (2020), A Fairytale is Born (2023), and Far Longer than Forever (2023) which deviate even further from the ballet. None of the films contain Tchaikovsky's music. Barbie of Swan Lake (2003) is a direct-to-video children's movie featuring Tchaikovsky's music and motion capture from the New York City Ballet and based on the Swan Lake story. In this version, Odette is not a princess by birth, but a baker's daughter; instead of being kidnapped by Rothbart and taken to the lake against her will, she discovers the Enchanted Forest when she willingly follows a unicorn there. She is also made into a more dominant heroine in this version, as she is declared as the one who is destined to save the forest from Rothbart's clutches when she frees a magic crystal. Another difference is the addition of new characters, such as Rothbart's cousin the Fairy Queen, Lila the unicorn, Erasmus the troll, and the Fairy Queen's fairies and elves, who have also been turned into animals by Rothbart. These fairies and elves replace the Swan Maidens from the ballet. It is also the Fairy Queen's magic that allows Odette to return to her human form at night, not Rothbart's spell. Other changes include renaming the Prince Daniel and a happy ending, instead of the ballet's tragic ending. Like the 1877 production, Odette wears a magic crown that protects her. Barbie in the Pink Shoes (2013) features an adaptation of Swan Lake amongst its many fairytales. In the animated series Ever After High there is Duchess Swan, which is the daughter of Princess Odette and Prince Siegfried.

Computer/video games

The 1988 NES video game Final Fantasy II used a minor portion of Swan Lake just before fighting the Lamia Queen boss. In the WonderSwan Color and later versions the portion is longer. The 1990 LucasArts adventure game Loom used a major portion of the Swan Lake suite for its audio track, as well as incorporating a major swan theme into the storyline. It otherwise bore no resemblance to the original ballet. The 1991 DMA Design puzzle game Lemmings used "Dance of the Little Swans" in its soundtrack. The 1993 Treasure platform game McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure uses a portion of Swan Lake as background music for one of its levels.^{[better source needed]} The 2008 Nintendo DS game Imagine Ballet Star contains a shortened version of Swan Lake. The main character, who is directly controlled by the player of the game, dances to three shortened musical pieces from Swan Lake. Two of the pieces are solos and the third piece is a pas de deux. The 2009 SEGA video game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games includes Swan Lake in its figure skating competition. The 2015 game Five Nights at Freddy's 3 contains a music box version of a piece from Swan Lake. The 2016 Blizzard Entertainment game Overwatch contains two unlockable costumes for the character Widowmaker based on Odette and Odile. The 2020 Nintendo Switch game Paper Mario: The Origami King features a comedic ballet production of the song, as well as a punk remix. The 2022 game Signalis contains a cassette tape the player can find that plays a section of Swan Lake. The 2023 rhythm game Just Dance 2024 Edition features a remix of the song_._

Dance

The Swedish dancer/choreographer Fredrik Rydman has produced a modern dance/street dance interpretation of the ballet entitled Swan Lake Reloaded. It depicts the "swans" as heroin addict prostitutes who are kept in place by Rothbart, their pimp. The production's music uses themes and melodies from Tchaikovsky's score and incorporates them into hip-hop and techno tunes.

Literature

Amiri & Odette (2009) is a verse retelling by Walter Dean Myers with illustrations by Javaka Steptoe. Myers sets the story in the Swan Lake Projects of a large city. Amiri is a basketball-playing "Prince of the Night", a champion of the asphalt courts in the park. Odette belongs to Big Red, a dealer, a power on the streets. The Black Swan (1999) is a fantasy novel written by Mercedes Lackey that re-imagines the original story and focuses heavily on Odile. Rothbart's daughter is a sorceress in her own right who comes to sympathise with Odette. The Sorcerer's Daughter (2003) is a fantasy novel by Irina Izmailova, a retelling of the ballet's plot. The boyish and careless Siegfried consciously prefers the gentle, equally childlike Odile, while the stern and proud Odette is from the very beginning attracted to Rothbart (who later turns out to be the kingdom's rightful monarch in hiding). Swan Lake (1989) is a children's novel written by Mark Helprin and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, which re-creates the original story as a tale about political strife in an unnamed Eastern European country. In it, Odette becomes a princess hidden from birth by the puppetmaster (and eventually usurper) behind the throne, with the story being retold to her child.

Music

British instrumental band The Cougars had a #33 UK hit with the single "Saturday Nite at the Duck-Pond", which used music from Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The song achieved some notoriety for being banned by the BBC. The reason for the ban was reported in the musical press, saying Saturday Nite At The Duck Pond was "a travesty of a major classical work". Japanese instrumental rock group Takeshi Terauchi & Bunnys recorded this on their 1967 album, Let's Go Unmei. Belgian band Wallace Collection quote from Act 2 Scene 10 in their track "Daydream" (1969). British ska band Madness featured a ska version in 1979 on their debut album One Step Beyond... British post-punk band Public Image Ltd's 1979 single Death Disco borrows elements of the main theme. The track appears on their 1979 album Metal Box under the title Swan Lake. South Korean group Shinhwa re-imagines the main theme into a hip-hop k-pop song "T.O.P. (Twinkling of Paradise)" (1999) Los Angeles group Sweetbox uses the main theme for the chorus of their song "Superstar" from the 2001 album Classified._ German singer Jeanette Biedermann uses the Swan Lake melody structure for her 2001 single release "How It's Got To Be"._ Spanish symphonic metal band Dark Moor borrows elements on the song "Swan Lake", the first track of their 2009 album Autumnal._ A reggae version of the Swan Lake ballet appears on the 2017 album Classical Made Modern 3. Canadian metal band The Agonist has made an a cappella version of act 2's "Scène. Moderato", which is included in their second studio album, Lullabies for the Dormant Mind._ Beyoncé uses the ballet's famous theme in her "visual album" Lemonade, a reference that underscores the film's meditation on infidelity. Scott Hamilton – Tenor Saxophone. Jazz interpretation – Scott Hamilton CLASSICS X Japan uses a short excerpt of it in "Silent Jealousy".

Musicals/opera

Odette – The Dark Side of Swan Lake, a musical written by Alexander S. Bermange and Murray Woodfield, was staged at the Bridewell Theatre, London in October 2007. In Radio City Christmas Spectacular, The Rockettes do a short homage to Swan Lake during the performance of the "Twelve Days of Christmas (Rock and Dance Version)", with the line "Seven Swans A-Swimming". Billy Elliot the Musical incorporates the most famous section of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake in a dance number, in which the main character dances while shadowed by his future, adult self. The musical Anastasia includes a scene in which several of the main characters attend a performance of Swan Lake in Paris near the show's climax. The four characters sing about their inner conflicts and desires as Tchaikovsky's score blends into the musical's melodies, the dancers onstage representing both the ballet's characters and the thoughts of each singer in turn. The top of the third act of the opera The Abduction of Figaro (1984) includes a parody of Swan Lake where Odile is portrayed as a Carmen Miranda character.

Television

The story was adapted in 1977 in the episode "Swan Lake" of the anime anthology series Manga Fairy Tales of the World. The opening title card cites a German folktale as its source, but in fact the episode follows the libretto quite faithfully and even uses Tchaikovsky's music. During the era of the Soviet Union, Soviet state television preempted large announcements with video recordings of Swan Lake on four infamous occasions. In 1982 state television broadcast recordings following the death of Leonid Brezhnev. In 1984 recordings preempted the announcement of the death of Yuri Andropov. In 1985, recordings preempted the announcement of the death of General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko. The final and most oft-cited instance of the use of Swan Lake in this context was during the August 1991 Soviet coup attempt leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. When independent Russian news channel TV Rain was forced to shut down due to censorship laws caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the station chose to end its final newscast with Swan Lake in a reference to its use in 1991. Princess Tutu (2002) is an anime television series whose heroine, Duck, wears a costume reminiscent of Odette's. She is a duck transformed by a writer into a girl (rather than the other way around), while her antagonist, Rue, dressed as Odile, is a girl who had been raised to believe she is a raven. Other characters include Mytho in the role of Siegfried, who is even referred to by this name towards the end of the second act, and Drosselmeyer playing in the role of Rothbart. The score of Swan Lake, along with that of The Nutcracker, is used throughout, as is, occasionally, the Petipa choreography, most notably in episode 13, where Duck dances the climactic pas de deux alone, complete with failed lifts and catches. In the second season of the anime Kaleido Star, a circus adaptation of Swan Lake becomes one of the Kaleido Stage's most important and successful shows. Main character Sora Naegino plays Princess Odette, with characters Leon Oswald as Prince Siegfried and May Wong as Odile. In episode 213 of The Muppet Show, Rudolf Nureyev performs Swine Lake with a giant ballerina pig. In episode 105 of Cagney and Lacey, Det. Chris Cagney went to this with her boyfriend and hated it so that she fell asleep in the second act. Swan Lake was heard in two episodes of the Playhouse Disney series Little Einsteins: "Quincy and the Magic Instruments" and "The Blue Footed Boobey Bird Ballet". In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode Loon Lake, Babs Bunny helps out Shirley the Loon after she was ridiculed by a group of snobbish swans in ballet class while preparing for a performance of Swan Lake. In Dexter's Laboratory episode, Deedeemimensional, Dexter, in order to deliver an important message to his future self, was forced to dance Swan Lake with Dee Dee and her future self. The Beavis and Butt-Head episode "A Very Special Episode" uses the same arrangement used in Dracula and The Mummy while Beavis is feeding the bird he saved. In the animated children's show Wonder Pets, Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming help encourage a baby swan to dance in his own way. The music of Swan Lake is used. A close arrangement of the waltz from act 1 appears in episodes 16, 23 and 78 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Sonic Rainboom", "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and "Simple Ways". In one of the Shimmer and Shine episodes called "The Great Ballet". Swan Lake was seen in this episode. In one of the Madagascar: A Little Wild episodes called "Hippo Lake". It has a bunch of Swan Lake references from this episode. Das Märchen vom Schwanensee (2025), a German television film from the Sechs auf einen Streich series.

Symbolism

In the 2020s, Swan Lake became a symbol of protest in Russia. This started after a failed attempt to take control of the country in 1991. During that time, as tanks moved into Moscow, state television kept playing the entire ballet on repeat. After three days of protests by thousands of people, the leaders of the attempt gave up. Soon after, the Soviet Union no longer existed.

There was a tradition in 1991 of playing Swan Lake on television when the government faced a crisis. This had happened before during uncertain times in the past. Because of this, Swan Lake came to represent times of big political changes and trouble.

Selected discography

Audio

Video