Swan Lake

Le Lac des cygnes

Ballet in four acts

Music

Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovski

Libretto

Vladimir Begichev
Vassili Geltser

Choreography

Rudolf Noureev

After Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov

Set design

Ezio Frigerio

Costume design

Franca Squarciapino

Lighting design

Vinicio Cheli

Conductor

Vello Pähn

Les Étoiles, les Premiers Danseurs et le Corps de Ballet

Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris

Matinée "Rêve d'enfants" on 11 Dec.
Tickets price and booking for this date only : +33158186510 / revedenfants.fr

Ce spectacle fera l’objet d’une captation audiovisuelle

Une co-production Opéra national de Paris et Fra Productions, réalisée par François Roussillon.
Diffusion en direct au cinéma le 8 décembre.

Sponsor of the Paris Opera initiatives for young people and of the avant-premières
Read more
Exclusive timepiece of the Paris Opera
Read more
Sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts
Read more
With the support of AROP
Read more

Podcast

about

"By the blue sea the Prince is pacing, On the blue sea he is gazing And once more before his sight Swam the graceful snow‑white swan." Alexandre Pouchkine, Le Conte du tsar Saltan

Drawing on ancient Slavic and Norse mythology where destiny is often born out of the mysterious forces of nature, Swan Lake has become a legend in its own right. Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score is imbued with a deep sense of nostalgia, echoing the composer’s own experience of love as elusive as it was impossible. However the work remained misunderstood until 1895 when Marius Petipa undertook his own choreographic interpretation. With the help of Lev Ivanov, Petipa created majestic figures for the female corps de ballet and breathed life into the swan‑dancer. In Rudolf Nureyev’s “Freudian” version, conceived for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1984, Prince Siegfried, manipulated by the evil Rothbart, shuns the realities of power and marriage to take refuge in dreams where a magic lake symbolizing idealised love appears to him. Nureyev elevated the role of the prince to that of the heroine by giving him a deeper psychological dimension whilst opting to give this masterly action ballet a tragic denouement more in tune with its musical substance.

Gallery