Swan Lake

“To me, Swan Lake is one long daydream of prince Siegfried. Reared on romantic reading, his desire for infinity has been fired and he refuses the reality of the power and the marriage forced on him by his tutor and his mother. To escape from the dreary destiny that is being prepared for him, he brings the vision of the lake, this ‘elsewhere’ for which he yearns, into his life. An idealized love is born in his mind, along with the prohibition that it represents (the white swan is the untouchable woman, the black swan the reverse mirror image, just as the evil Rothbart is a corrupt substitute for Wolfgang, the tutor). And so when the dream fades away, the sanity of the prince does not know how to survive.” In Rudolf Nureyev’s reading, all dramatic lines converge on Siegfried, the romantic prince with a melancholic, contemplative soul. It is an introspective work of technical and interpretive complexity that pays homage to history, tradition, and the grand repertoire through the iconic snow-white swans.