Swan Lake
Tchaikovsky's first and most successful ballet was commissioned by Vladimir Begichev on behalf of Julius Reisinger, the Czech ballet master who had been hired to become the primary ballet master for the Bolshoi Theatre, in 1875 and the ballet premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on December 12th, 1892. The score was written over the course of 16 months. Reisinger only provided an overall sketch, forcing Tchaikovsky to visit the Bolshoi Theatre library to study previous scores to understand the art form better. The libretto is attributed his his brother Modeste and the dancer Vasily Geltser.
Swan Lake was an immediate success and quickly entered into the standard repertoire. Besides The Nutcracker it is the most frequently performed ballet in the canon. In fact, many regional ballet companies only produce two ballets per year -- Swan Lake in Spring/Summer and as many Nutcrackers as can be scheduled between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Those two productions must generate the entire annual budget for most companies.
Swan Lake's popularity has lead to many re-interpretations, some good and many questionable or bad. In recent years there have been two film versions --Matthew Bourne's gender bent version wherein Odile is male and Aronofsky's "Black Swan" with Natalie Portman. And there are the ongoing variations performed by Les Ballets Trockadero whose parodies mock the seriousness of the traditional ballet staging. The humor is both in the slight modifications to the variations as well as the blunt humor of the dancers being replaced by danseurs on pointe. But the Trocks are not to be dismissed out of hand. Some of the ballerinos are superb dancers comparable to most principal ballerinas at international companies.
Swan Lake - Nureyev/Fonteyn
Libretto
English libretto for Swan Lake. I'll bet you never knew precisely who was who, or what was happening. Most of us have seen Swan Lake multiple times since childhood and have built our understanding of the story on very shaky ground. Take a beat and read through. It's much shorter than an opera libretto.
This libretto can be found in full context at www.petipasociety.com
Synopsis
Here's the synopsis in case you to not wish to read through the libretto. However, this is only enough to keep you from being entirely lost at sea -- the finer details are in the libretto.
Swan Lake is what's known as a fantasy ballet. In this case the fantasy element is the mystical owl and the character known as Rothbart. They make up the darker energy of the story arc. The lighter energy is, of course, love. As with many fairy tales that began in medieval times, the purpose of the tale is to control the sexuality of young women.
The beautiful swans in this ballet are all transformed maidens (very specifically unmarried women) who died before being married. While not stated it is presumed that many of these maidens succumbed to familial murder due to a discovered pre-marital liason. So, they are all "lost souls". In this story these maidens are condemned to live their daylight hours as swans and only re-take their human forms at night. This is intended as an eternal reminder of their youthful mistake that prevented their having been married. Thought about in this light, it is a very cruel punishment.
In our story, Prince Albrecht, (Albert in early tellings) is out hunting and has tarried past darkness and finds himself at the edge of a lake when he sees the swans. He draws his bow to take a shot at the most regal looking swan, but the shot is an errant one. Then he sees the swans alight and transform into lovely maidens. In shame and horror, he snaps his bow and arrows and begs the forgiveness of the beautiful maiden that he almost slew. He does know the back story -- he's a wild, entitled youth, but he's not stupid. Nevertheless, Odile gives the cleansed version of their stories and Albrecht, besotten by her beauty, swears his eternal love for her. Which is exactly what is required to break the Owl's spell.
Les Ballets Trocadero
Les Ballets Trocadero is an all-male classical ballet company based in Yokohama, Japan. They have achieved international fame with their combination of gender-bending (men who dance on point), superb classical technique and tongue-in-cheek humor. At full length perfomances they usually throw in a dead serious variation and the grace and artistry of the often burly, hairy chested danseur rivals any prima ballerina in the same role. The more you know about classical ballet the funnier you will find their performances and the more you will admire their talent (e.g., Dying Swan variation). The Trocks especially excel in storytelling through mime. Please note their exceptional basic technique especially port-de-bras and épaulement.