BOSTON—“Swan Lake,” the best-loved ballet in the repertoire, is set in both the everyday world and a mythological realm of spells and sorcerers. The music is familiar yet perennially fresh, and the choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, an amalgam of two sensibilities. In many ways “Swan Lake” is a symphony of opposites, its entire conception steeped in contrast.
The Boston Ballet production, which debuted in 2014, underscores such antitheses. Artistic director Mikko Nissinen, who added a number of innovations to the production, said, “I planned it that way.”
“Swan Lake” is the story of Prince Siegfried who falls in love with Odette, the swan queen, after meeting her on the shores of the lake that is her domain. The evil sorcerer Von Rothbart has put her under a spell that forces her to live as a swan by day and a woman by night. That spell can only be broken by a man who loves and promises to marry her.
At a ball in honor of his birthday, Siegfried is duped by Von Rothbart and his accomplice Odile, who seduces him into swearing he will marry her. Realizing that he has betrayed the swan queen, he rushes back to the lakeside and apologizes. She forgives him, but although Von Rothbart’s plan is thwarted and he dies, Odette has no hope that the spell can be broken, so she and Siegfried end their lives together.
That is the traditional tale, but Nissinen significantly changed it by adding a prologue, which shows events that precede Act I. In it, Von Rothbart is a handsome young man much like Siegfried (not a monster as in many productions), who kidnaps Odette and drags her into the lake. “Siegfried and Von Rothbart are similar,” noted Nissinen, “but one of them went wrong.”
The contrast between the two men is highlighted when Act 1 opens with Siegfried and his friends happily celebrating his coming of age in a bucolic setting. Costume and set designer Robert Perdziola noted that the backdrop for this act was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, and its colors are all pastels. The scene serves, in Perdziola’s words, “as a farewell to Siegfried’s childhood.”
Of Act 2, Perdziola said we are plunged into the “deep, deep blue” of the lakeside, and Odette soon appears.
Misa Kuranaga, who will be undertaking the role (in rotation with other ballerinas), observed that the choreography for the swan queen embodies two contrasting styles. “From the waist down, it’s classical,” said Kuranaga, “but from the waist up, it’s almost contemporary because the port de bras [positioning of the arms] has to look like a bird." This is perhaps the most acclaimed aspect of the ballet: the illusion that Odette and her swan maidens are both human and animal, woman and bird.
Lasha Khozashvili, one of the dancers playing Siegfried, noted that in Act 2 the focus is on the ballerina as she tells the prince, through movement, about her terrible fate.
Khozashvili observed that the challenge for Siegfried is to maintain his connection with her while she relates her story. “At first he doesn’t understand why she’s so scared of him; he wants to help her and make her feel more comfortable,” said Khozashvili. In fact, the grand pas de deux of Act 2 might be said to express the resolution of opposing forces as Odette moves from fear to trust in Siegfried’s arms.
The happiness of that resolution does not last long, because in Act 3 Odile arrives on the scene. Since Odette wears a white tutu and Odile is dressed in black, they are profoundly contrasting figures. Both parts are played by the same ballerina, so it’s no wonder that Siegfried gets confused, but it’s also true that Odile, as Von Rothbart’s agent, does everything in her power to seduce the prince and make him betray his beloved.
Boston Ballet principal dancer Paulo Arrais noted that Odile “awakens the sexual side of the prince.” Just as Von Rothbart puts Odette under a spell, Odile bewitches Siegfried in their “wild and explosive pas de deux,“ said Arrais, and with her famous 32 fouetté spins. As Arrais put it, “Lust makes him lose his mind.”
Siegfried returns to the lakeside in Act 4, which features Nissinen’s innovative use of fog onstage. First, the swan maidens arise out of the low-lying haze on the lake, and in the denouement the lovers run into clouds of vapor ascending from its surface.
Odette chooses death rather than life as half-animal; neither she nor Siegfried can continue to exist in two worlds. Although many productions of “Swan Lake” end on a consoling note with a view of the swan queen and her prince reunited in heaven, in this one they simply vanish into a wall of mist.
‘Swan Lake’
Boston Opera House
539 Washington St., Boston
Tickets: 617-695-6955, or BostonBallet.org
Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Opens/Closes: April 29–May 26
Based in a Boston suburb, Carla DeFord is a freelance writer with a special interest in the arts and education. Her work has appeared in such publications as CriticalDance.org, Ballet Review, The Boston Globe, School Band and Orchestra, JAZZed Magazine, Choral Director Magazine, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
