swan lake
Masayu Kimoto (Prince Siegfried), Liudmila Konovalova (Odette), Ladies Ensemble
Liudmila Konovalova (Odette), Masayu Kimoto (Prince Siegfried), Ladies Ensemble
spiritual condition in white GUNHILD OBERZAUCHER-SCHÜLLER
There did not appear to be much that was different about this new St. Petersburg production of Swan Lake in 1895. Not the music: Tchaikovsky had composed it not quite twenty years earlier for another city (Moscow), for another choreographer (Wentsel Reisinger). Now a few numbers had simply been expanded. Not the subject matter: it was taken from a German collection of fairy tales written down towards the end of the 18th century. Now the dramatic emphases had been modified. Not the dance resources: in Moscow twenty years earlier the dancers had been perhaps technically more advanced but had danced similarly. Now an effort had been made to achieve a better balance among the dancers. And yet: suddenly it had all come together to create a magic whole – storyline, music, choreography. The “new” Swan Lake brought to the stage of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre by two ballet masters, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, became the “real” Swan Lake, in other words the work that is now synonymous with an entire art form. The auspices for the work’s success were by no means particularly favourable; quite the contrary. To start with, the event was to mark a sad occasion: Tchaikovsky had died in late 1893, and now it was up to the Imperial Theatres to honour the greatest Russian composer with a memorial performance. We no longer know who gave the instruction that Swan Lake should finally be produced at the Mariinsky Theatre. Was it the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky? Or did the order come from higher yet? Why Swan Lake, Marius Petipa, ballet master at the Mariinsky Theatre, might have asked himself, why a ballet that was not even in the theatre’s repertoire? Why would a performance of The Sleeping Beauty or The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s “St. Petersburg ballets” not suffice? Illness! – old Petipa may have thought – I shall be ill! Fifty years in the service of this theatre, half a century of work by a Frenchman for the
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court of the tsar. And how many ballets had been created over this period? Was it seventy-five, one ballet for each year of his life? Tradition has it that the old ballet master had feigned illness, although he did not feel ill and in fact was at the peak of his creative powers. His assistant, the second ballet master at the theatre, Lev Ivanov should choreograph the desired scene from Swan Lake. Ivanov had already tried his hand at this scene once, at the tsar’s private theatre. Now he should take care of the memorial event! Ivanov’s realization of the Swan Lake scene for this memorial performance on 17 February (1 March) 1894 left a lasting impression. The decision was made that the other acts should soon be added to Ivanov’s scene. Now Petipa was also involved, and once again things looked bad. Double authorship was not unusual for ballets at the time, but in this case the choreography should be as uniform as possible. Negotiations started, with two sides emerging: on one side Petipa and his musical advisor Riccardo Drigo, the conductor and composer, on the other the more powerful party: Modest Tchaikovsky, the composer’s brother and executor, and Ivan Vsevolozhsky himself. Petipa immediately realized that the drama of the original staging/music concept was imbalanced. What he needed to do now was convince Modest Tchaikovsky that the musical structure could be improved. The experienced Drigo helped out by finding suitable material in Tchaikovsky’s piano compositions; small compositions that he had intended to orchestrate. They would establish a balance between the acts. In addition, the ballerina had her own requests, that much they knew already. The death of the tsar and the mourning period necessitated provided time for reflection. Finally Modest Tchaikovsky had recorded the changes he wanted in the libretto, helped by Vsevolozhsky. Compared to the original Moscow libretto, Siegfried was now far more melancholy. Furthermore, the reasons for Odette’s bewitchment had been altered and the conditions that would release her from the spell changed. Only the man who, falling in love for the first time himself, would swear to be faithful to Odette and be prepared to give his life for her would be able to release her from the curse. An important dramatic change was the inclusion of the act of deception to which the prince falls prey. Siegfried does in fact believe that the beautiful Odile is his beloved standing before him; in all innocence he incurs guilt. Then he is resolved to die for his error, also to release Odette from the power of evil and break the spell. Siegfried and Odette are then united in death, Rothbart collapses, dead. The magician too was to appear in different guises: as a human, but also as an evil bird. Finally rehearsals could start. The St. Petersburg Swan Lake was performed on 15 (27) January 1895. According to Vsevolozhsky, the “grand ballet” was now divided into three acts and four scenes (Act 1 consisted of two scenes). Pierina Legnani, the ballet ensemble’s (Italian) prima ballerina, performed the dual role of Odette/Odile, Pavel Gerdt danced Prince Siegfried. The prince had a companion, Benno, and he fulfilled an additional partner task. What was it that now gave the ballet its magical overall effect? The changes to the music or improvements to the dramatic flow? The balance between the acts? Petipa’s society scenes, or Ivanov’s white (swan) scenes? The emotional expression and bravura of Legnani, or the beauty and harmony of the lines of the corps de ballet? 31
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