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ACT ONE
It's Prince Siegfried's coming of age, wellwishers congratulate him whilst the court jester entertains the gathered throng. His mother, the Queen, arrives. She presents her son with the gift of a fine new crossbow, but also reminds him that it is time for him to marry, and at the coming ball of he must choose a bride from amongst a group of prospective fiancees. Night falls, and as Siegfried is left alone contemplating his future a flock of swans flies overhead towards the lake. Siegfried rushes after them.
At the lake, the swans swim ashore and turn into beautiful young maidens. Siegfried is entranced, especially by the swan queen, the beautiful Odette. Odette shies from him at first, but he assures her he means her no harm, and she tells him of the cruel fate that has befallen her. She has been enchanted by the evil sorceror, Rothbart, turned into a swan by day and able to assume her human form only at night. The spell can only be broken if a true lover swear undying faithfulness and marry her. Siegfried realises his destiny has changed - he promises to save her.
ACT TWO
The next day Siegfried's coming of age ball begins at the castle. Siegfried is introduced to the prospective fiancees his mother has chosen for him, but he has little interest in any of them - thinking only of Odette. But suddenly, two more guests arrive, it is Von Rothbart and his daughter Odile. The seductive Odile charms Siegfried through her beauty and her likeness to Odette, and swears his love for her in front of all present. Von Rothbart is triumphant, reminding Siegfried of his betrayal of Odette, while Odile haughtily rejects him. Realising he has has been tricked, the Prince is horrified by what he has done and rushes to the lake to find Odette and beg her foregiveness.
ACT THREE
Back at the Lake Odette tells the other Swan maidens of Von Rothbart's trickery and Siegfried's betrayal. The evil sorceror seems to have won. The Prince arrives and begs Odette to forgive him, declaring his true love for her, but she seems destined to die of a broken heart. Von Rothbart arrives and the Prince fights with him. The power of good is victorious, Siegfried defeats Von Rothbart and with his death the spell is at last broken. Odette revives, and they face a new dawn together.
The St. Petersburg is one of the premier touring ballet companies to regularly visit provincial centres in the UK and as such their visit to a town near you is an event not to be missed. This season's tour is no exception and indeed is a particular triumph even by their own high standards. After an exceptional 'La Bayadere' earlier in the week, their second offering, the ever popular 'Swan Lake', was even better.
As with 'La Bayadere', the sets, by provincial standards, were quite exceptional and despite consisting almost entirely of two-dimensional drops yet manage to give a real sense of depth for each location. For the interior of the palace, for example, layered drops hanging from above give a sensation of a roof made up of multiple arches. The costumes also were quite magnificent without any apparent overlap from the previous production. With four ballets on this season's tour (only two were offered at Bradford), the costume department alone must impose a significant logistical strain on the company's movements.
Then there is the orchestra. Where many other touring companies rely on recorded music, the SPBT take their own orchestra with them which, whilst not particularly large is particularly talented and live music sounds so much better than the recorded variety.
But where this company really excells is in the quality of the performances and those we were treated to tonight could provide no better example. Central to any performance of 'Swan Lake', of course, is the joint role of Odette/Odile, a role which requires a ballerina who is not only a master technician but also a consummate actress. Not only is the role very technically demanding in both guises, but each requires a completely different mind-set. Odette is the stately princess, Odile is the wicked seductress, and there is more to making this distinction than simply changing from a white tutu to a black one. I make this point because different ballerinas acheive this distinction with differing levels of success, and to illustrate the fact that those who can do it convincingly are few - but not so few that this company cannot muster two of them!
Last time I saw the SPBT perform Swan Lake it was Irina Kolesnikova who gave a masterclass in the part, this time it was newcomer Marina Vezhnovets who stamped her name so firmly on the role. Her Odette was full of dignity and hurt, reticent in her first encounter with Siegfried and touchingly romantic in her growing trust in him. Tall and elegant, she danced with masterful grace and firm precision, floating across the stage as if the beating of her arms would cause her to take flight at any moment. But it was her Odile, oh her Odile, that makes me shiver still with the sheer memory of it - dancing with wild abandon and a seductively wicked smile she poured her very essence into the performance.
Her partner, Yuri Kovalev, another newcomer to the company as Siegfried, showed real quality in dancing and characterisation. Vibrantly active and bursting with energy he acheived tremendous elevation in his leaps, and his comic-book good looks are a perfect fit for the part. Another standout performance was that of Aleksandr Abaturov whose boundless vitality and perfect comic timing as the jester were thoroughly mesmerising.
With live orchestra, great sets and costumes, and an impressively large and hugely talented cast this was classical ballet at its grandest.