Bolshoi: Swan Lake

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Captured live on 26 September 2010.
Ballet in two acts and four scenes

Commissioned in 1875, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky composed the music for Swan Lake in just one year. The ballet premiered in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as The Lake of the Swans. Although it has been presented in many different versions down the years, most ballet companies base their productions both choreographically and musically on Marius Petipa’s work. Today’s choreography was created by Yuri Grigorovitch in 2001, using scenes choreographed by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Alexander Gorsky.

Synopsis
In the palace, the heir to the kingdom, Prince Siegfried, is celebrating his birthday. He is congratulated by his mother, the Princess Mother, his friends and courtiers.
In a majestic ceremony, Siegfried is made a knight. Young girls try to attract his attention, as the prince must choose a wife during his birthday ball. By nightfall, overcome by emotions of a different order and dreaming of a pure and ideal love, Siegfried escapes into the night and finds a flock of swans, which he decides to pursue.

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto and choreography: Yuri Grigorovich, after the scenario by Vladimir Begichev and Vasily Geltser, with scenes choreographed by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Alexander Gorsky
Scenery restoration: Margarita Prokudina
Music director: Pavel Sorokin
Sets: Simon Virsaladze
Lighting design: Mikhail Sokolov

With the Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia
With the Bolshoi soloists and the Bolshoi Corps de Ballet