Paris National Opera

Ballets

Swan Lake

  
Ballet in 4 acts inspired from a German tale with a music of Tchaikovski. It has been created in the Bolchoï theatre of Moscow.

 

Act 1:
In the castle of a royal couple, a great feast is given for the 20th birthday of Siegfried prince. He is going to choose his wife among the court but he seams preoccupied by other thinking.
His present was a crossbow and at nightfall, he leaves in the vicinity of the castle with it.


Act 2:
The prince arrives toward a lake where he catches sight of a swan. He is going to shoot when the swan reveals to be a magnificent woman-swan. She tells to him her story: she is a princess, Odette, who have been transformed in swan like other young girls, by the nasty Rothbart. She can only be saved of this evil spell by those who will give her his eternal love. Touched, Siegfried propounds her to be her saviour and makes troth. The following day, it must take place a party when he will have to choose his wife. He asks Odette to come because he wants espouse her but Odette can’t because of her swan condition. So, Siegfried swears that he will not marry and will stay faithful. At this moment, the sun is rising, Odette disappears and Siegfried stays there upset.


Act 3:
The feast begins but Siegfried seems absent, he doesn’t take care of what is setting around him. Several folk dances take place and some pretenders are presented to him. He refuses all of them. But suddenly, a creature looking like Odette goes in for him. The prince convinced that it is her, makes a question. But she is not Odette, but Odile, Rothbart’s daughter, black swan that has been transformed in Odette’s ringer thanks to her father’s magic. Rothbart triumphs, Siegfried betrays. He has lost those who loved, Odette won’t be saved.


Act 4:
Siegfried realizing his deplorable error, falls in his grief. In his wandering, he has landed up the place of his meeting with Odette. All swans are around the lake in great rue and Odette is crying for her lost love.
  
There, several ends have been hatched:
1877: a tempest engulfs Siegfried and Odette
1885: Odette desperate drowns in the lake, Siegfried stabs himself and both meet to begin another life in another world.
After the Russian revolution of 1917, people wanted a good end. So, after a terrible fight between Siegfried and Rothbart, the prince is the winner and Odette gets back her human form. Both can live happy for ever.
It is also the actual version with the choreography of Rudolf Noureev.