About this Piece

In May 1875, Russia’s Imperial Theater invited Tchaikovsky to compose music for a full-length ballet—his first attempt at the genre—and the composer gladly accepted, in part, he wrote to fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, “because I need the money.”

Tchaikovsky chose as his subject a story that had inspired private evenings of entertainment for his sister’s children. It combined elements from Scandinavian and German folktales and told of Prince Siegfried, who is under pressure to choose a wife. While out hunting, the prince meets and falls in love with Odette, a princess who has been turned into a swan by the sorcerer Von Rothbart. She can assume her human form only at night. Love can break the spell, and Siegfried vows to do so. But Von Rothbart disguises his own daughter, Odile, as Odette and tricks Siegfried into choosing another woman as his bride-to-be. Siegfried discovers the deception, but it is too late. The heartbroken Odette dies of grief in Siegfried’s arms.

Having never written a ballet, Tchaikovsky studied scores of previous works. Prior to Swan Lake, most ballets considered music almost as an afterthought, an accompaniment to which the dancers could execute choreography already formulated by the ballet master. Tchaikovsky, however, reversed this process, creating a score that develops the drama in music that would in turn inspire choreography on the stage.

The composer was justly proud of his score, but the 1877 premiere didn’t go so well. Its poor reception may have been due to a far less talented dancer appearing as Odette because of her millionaire husband’s influence. The musicians complained of Tchaikovsky’s overly complex score, while Moscow’s critics thought that the music suffered from “thematic and melodic monotony.” One outlier was the Russian Gazette, which found “as music for a ballet, it is perhaps even too good.” Over a decade later, in Prague, Tchaikovsky finally experienced a staging of Act II that afforded him “one brief moment of unalloyed happiness.” 

Tchaikovsky didn’t survive to see his first ballet become a success. In 1895, it was remounted in St. Petersburg with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The composer’s brother Modest also contributed a happier ending in which Siegfried and Odette reunite, break the spell, and bring about Von Rothbart’s demise.

Tonight’s program with the San Francisco Ballet presents three selections from the ballet featuring Helgi Tomasson’s choreography based on the Petipa and Ivanov version. The Act II pas de deux takes us to a moonlit lake where Prince Siegfried and his hunting party encounter a flock of swans. The Prince takes aim, but one swan reveals herself to be Odette. Her melancholy story is voiced by solo violin and harp accompaniment. A resolute cello line joins the violin as the Prince invites her to his ball.

While the second-act pas de deux aches with sincerity, the one from the third act weaves deception. Odile, resembling Odette—complete with a similar solo-violin accompaniment—enters the ball, where she entrances Prince Siegfried, hoping he will break his vow to Odette. As Caitlin Sims wrote in the San Francisco Ballet program notes, “...the ballroom scene in which Odile seduces the Prince becomes rather meta: The dancer knows that the audience knows that she’s tricking the prince, and also that the audience is also watching to see how she’ll pull it off. For the narrative to work, the Prince needs to see enough of Odette to declare his everlasting love for her, while the audience needs to feel that they’re in on the ruse and can easily tell it’s not Odette.”

The final selection of the night returns us to Act II, just after Odette and Siegfried declare their love for each other. In celebration, four young swans join hands for a marvel of synchronization and precision. The Dance of the Cygnets lasts less than two minutes but has become one of the most famous dances in the classical ballet repertoire. —Adapted from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives and San Francisco Ballet