# Swan Lake



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes

This masterpiece deserves a thread:




(Sorry for happy ending lovers, but originally the end was with Odette and Siegfried dying together and rising to the heavens-pretty tragic, isn't it?)


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## jegreenwood

Pick your favorite ending. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake#Alternative_endings

I've seen NYCB, ABT, Mariinsky and (on DVD) Royal Ballet.


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## david johnson

This was one of the first ballets whose music I greatly enjoyed. I prefer the F Horn entrances at the end to be very loud. The recordings led by Rozhdestvensky and by Feidler do bring this out well


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes

david johnson said:


> This was one of the first ballets whose music I greatly enjoyed. I prefer the F Horn entrances at the end to be very loud. The recordings led by Rozhdestvensky and by Feidler do bring this out well


Actually, this is a favorite of mine from childhood (I'm 29 in three weeks).


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes

Check this out:
Swan Lake-Japan 1981


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## jegreenwood

Got a text from a friend who's coming to NYC next week and wanted to see ballet. So we'll be at American Ballet Theatre's "Swan Lake" next Tuesday.


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## pianowillbebach

I remember dancing in Swan Lake years ago! I was one of the guests at the ball/corps dancer


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## vespertine

The Royal Ballet version in 2018 is the best I've seen. I believe they're staging the same version next year. Marianela Nuñez was breathtaking as Odette/Odile.


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## Marsilius

Yes, the current Royal Ballet production, by Liam Scarlett, looks fabulous. Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov's partnership goes from strength to strength.


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## Rogerx

Unforgettable


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## melodies

*The very best I've seen...
*


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## DavidA

Watched this recently. You just have to gasp at the dancing! And if you enjoy tragedy this has it in spades.


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## jegreenwood

I saw the NYCB version on Sunday. Comments in the attending ballet thread.


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## JAS

They only do a set of selection, but Les Ballets Trockadero are worth seeing in their Swan Lake. Great art can withstand satire, plus in this case it is a kind of affectionate satire.


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## mbhaub

Not a satire, but something quite far from Tchaikovsky's conception:Gay Swan Lake


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## Guest

mbhaub said:


> Not a satire, but something quite far from Tchaikovsky's conception:Gay Swan Lake


I regard this as a culture war piece and not related to Tchaikovsky. Ergo, 'quite far from PIT's conception' and best left out of this discussion lest it offends. I'm personally offended by it.


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## Autumn Leaves

This 1969 Kirov Ballet version, I think, is definitely worth checking out, despite the cuts.


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## Marsilius

Christabel said:


> I regard this as a culture war piece and not related to Tchaikovsky...


Apart from the fact that... duhhh... it is set to Tchaikovsky's score.


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## JohnHunter84

It was the first ballet I have seen. And it was really a wonderful, I think that's where our "romance" with ballet began, because it's love at first sight. All this drama, smooth lines, the best music. my wife even cried.Super.


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## MAS

I love *Swan Lake* in all of its incarnations, whether _legit_, the Ballet Trocadero, or Matthew Bourne's reimagining. The Trocadero dancers are astonishing; satire or no, they dance extremely well. I wouldn't call it "Gay Swan Lake," they stick to the story, and there are only a few moments of camp, mostly for laughs (the falling of feathers on The Swan, for instance). You wouldn't know the ballerinas were boys, unless you knew in advance so good are they.


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## Guest

Marsilius said:


> Apart from the fact that... duhhh... it is set to Tchaikovsky's score.


My grandchildren dance to Tchaikovsky; does this mean it's legitimate ballet because he wrote the music?


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## Guest

This is taking ballet just a bit too far!!

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...years ago,then-artistic director Sergei Filin.


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## JAS

MAS said:


> I love *Swan Lake* in all of its incarnations, whether _legit_, the Ballet Trocadero, or Matthew Bourne's reimagining. The Trocadero dancers are astonishing; satire or no, they dance extremely well. I wouldn't call it "Gay Swan Lake," they stick to the story, and there are only a few moments of camp, mostly for laughs (the falling of feathers on The Swan, for instance). You wouldn't know the ballerinas were boys, unless you knew in advance so good are they.


One of my favorites of their bits is when one dancer in the line falls down, then stays there until they come back, then just gets up and proceeds as if nothing happened. There is an interesting documentary on the troupe which points out that they have to get custom made shoes since they don't normally come in their sizes.


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## Marsilius

Christabel said:


> My grandchildren dance to Tchaikovsky; does this mean it's legitimate ballet because he wrote the music?


What an odd question! We were debating whether or not the Swan Lake production by the highly respected choreographer Matthew Bourne "is related to Tchaikovsky". You claimed it was not (see above). I pointed out that Bourne's use of Tchaikovsky's score most certainly creates a relationship between a professionally-produced ballet and the composer (though I would concede that any relationship between Bourne and Marius Petipa is pretty non-existent). Your grandchildren too are clearly forging a relationship with Tchaikovsky's music as they dance to it, and only you can tell us whether their efforts amount to something we might recognize as ballet - but it might well do so if they are, say, teenagers at a class.


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## Guest

Marsilius said:


> What an odd question! We were debating whether or not the Swan Lake production by the highly respected choreographer Matthew Bourne "is related to Tchaikovsky". You claimed it was not (see above). I pointed out that Bourne's use of Tchaikovsky's score most certainly creates a relationship between a professionally-produced ballet and the composer (though I would concede that any relationship between Bourne and Marius Petipa is pretty non-existent). Your grandchildren too are clearly forging a relationship with Tchaikovsky's music as they dance to it, and only you can tell us whether their efforts amount to something we might recognize as ballet - but it might well do so if they are, say, teenagers at a class.


Ah, no; it was you who said "duh" and that a PC ballet was valued because PIT wrote the score - in your post number #18.


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## Marsilius

No, in post 18 I pointed out that, contrary to your assertion that you regarded Bourne's Swan Lake as "not related to Tchaikovsky", there is a very apparent and obvious relationship simply because Bourne's Swan Lake has been _set to_ Tchaikovsky's score.

While you may have meant that MB's production is not related to _Petipa's_ original production, that is not the same thing at all.


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## Guest

Marsilius said:


> No, in post 18 I pointed out that, contrary to your assertion that you regarded Bourne's Swan Lake as "not related to Tchaikovsky", there is a very apparent and obvious relationship simply because Bourne's Swan Lake has been _set to_ Tchaikovsky's score.
> 
> While you may have meant that MB's production is not related to _Petipa's_ original production, that is not the same thing at all.


But you could have argued that coherently instead of writing the very adolescent "duh".


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## Marsilius

It was impossible to argue anything against a response as utterly unsupported by evidence/argument as "I'm personally offended by it".

I could have coped with "I personally find it crudely choreographed OR unoriginal OR poorly designed OR lacking in any other one of dozens of other objective criteria", but to dismiss it merely because it "offends" you adds nothing to reasoned discussion.

As we cannot read your mind, do take the opportunity to tell us exactly what it is about Matthew Bourne's production that is so _offensive_.


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## Rogerx

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op. 20

Margot Fonteyn & Rudolf Nureyev

Wiener Symphoniker & Mitglieder des Balletts der Wiener Staatsoper, John Lanchbery

Watching this one last night


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## JAS

The clip attached to this story shows the power of music:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended

At first, I thought it was perhaps exaggerating the degree of response, but you can see that she is not just following the music, but anticipating it, and remembering the facial expressions as well as the movements (to the extent that she is able to do them at her age and in a wheel chair).


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