Discover Ivanov & Petipa's ballet
Swan Lake
A story of impossible love, set to Tchaikovsky's soaring and meloncholy music.
Introduction | Synopsis | Characters
Introduction
Today Swan Lake is probably the best known ballet in the world yet it did not have great success in Tchaikovsky's lifetime. The famous music was originally performed with different choreography and found little acclaim at its premiere in 1880. It was not until 1893, the year that Tchaikovsky died, that the celebrated choreographers Marius Petipa and his colleague Lev Ivanov created the ballet as it it now known.
The story is that of an impossible love affair between a prince and a beautiful swan maiden. On the eve of his 21st birthday, the prince escapes his royal duty by running into a moonlit forest. He finds a lake of enchanted swans, falling in love with their beautiful but doomed queen, Odette. He cannot free her from the evil sorceror Von Rothbart and, in the final act, the lovers plunge into the depths of a magic lake to be reunited in death.
Read more: the history of Swan Lake, Swan Lake in its historical context.
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Black Swan/White Swan?
Find out all about the difference on our Swan Lake education site: story, costumes, music and choreography, interviews with dancers and experts, photo galleries.
Synopsis
Act I
A palace garden
Prince Siegfried is with his friends and tutor, drinking wine and joking; celebrating the fact that he will soon be 21. His mother appears and scolds him, telling him that the time has come for him to choose a wife - at his birthday ball the next day he must select an eligible girl.
Siegfried is pensive and anxious. He and his friends see a group of swans in the sky and set off to hunt them.
Act II
A ruined chapel by a lake
The swans settle, and Siegfried is about to shoot one when it transforms into a beautiful maiden. Shyly, she tells him that she is Odette, the Swan Queen, and that she and the other swans are maidens who have been bewitched into swan form by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart. The spell can only be broken if a man who has never loved another woman swears to love her forever.
Siegfried, fascinated by Odette's beauty, stops the other cadets from shooting the swans. They leave Siegfried alone with Odette and the maidens.
Siegfried falls in love with Odette and vows to save her. As dawn approaches he tries to hold on to her, but the power of the spell draws her back to the ruins to become a swan again.
Act III
Siegfried's 21st-birthday party at the palace
Siegfried’s mother orders him to dance with six princesses and choose one as a bride. He refuses to select one. The celebrations are interupted by the arrival of a beautiful and mysterious young woman on the arm of Von Rothbart, the sorceror. It is Rothbart's daughter Odile who is bewitched to resemble Odette in human form.
She and Siegfried dance and Odile seduces the prince. Odette, appearing as a vision, tries in vain to warn Siegfried. Deluded into believing that he is dancing with Odette, Siegfried chooses Odile as his bride and swears to love her forever. In a flash, Von Rothbart reveals his evil trick and disappears with Odile as Siegfried realizes his error. Grief-stricken, he returns to the lake.
ACT IV
The lake
Odette appears, distraught. She tells the other swans of Siegfried’s betrayal and resigns herself to death as the only way to escape Von Rothbart’s evil power. A storm rises and Siegfried desperately searches for Odette. When they meet, he swears his love and resolves to die alongside Odette, which will destroy Von Rothbart’s power. The lovers run to a cliff and throw themselves into the lake below to be united in death.
Von Rothbart’s evil is destroyed.
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Characters
Odette: The Swan Queen, she has been bewitched into swan form by the evil sorceror Von Rothbart
Prince Siegfried: He falls in love with Odette and vows to rescue her.
Von Rothbart: An evil sorceror who has bewitched Odette into swan form.
Odile: Von Rothbart's daughter, who tricks Prince Siegfried by disguising herself as Odette
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