Ballet: Swan Lake

Date: Dec 30-31 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center

Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular of all ballets. The scenario, initially in two acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on March 4, 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on Jan 15, 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.