Tchaikovsky's Ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker

by Roland John Wiley

Tchaikovsky's Ballets combines a detailed and thorough analysis of the music of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker with descriptions of the first productions of these works in Imperial Russia. A background chapter on the ballet audience, the collaboration of composer and balletmaster, and Moscow of the 1860's leads into an account of the first production of Swan Lake in 1877. A discussion of theater reforms initiated by the Director of the Imperial Theaters prepares the reader for a study of the still-famous 1890 St. Petersburg production of Sleeping Beauty . Wiley then explains how the Nutcracker , produced just two years after Sleeping Beauty , was seen in a much less favorable light than it is now. Separate chapters are devoted to the music of each ballet and translations of published libretti, choreographer's instructions to the composer, and the balletmaster's plans for Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker are reproduced in appendices.

Genres: Music

446 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 1985

Reviews

[Carolina Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's talk about Tchaikovsky, shall we? Because, oh boy, I'm so going to St. Petersburg someday. But before we start, allow me to introduce some ads. And no, no one is paying me to do the advertising, which partially explains why my bank account is nearly starving these tough economy days. If you're like me, a Ballet, Orchestral Performance and Classic Music love without a fat buck on your pocket, check out the nearest movie theather to see if the Royal Opera House &/or the Met Opera's live transmition is avaliable to your city. Because I have been blessed to watch the live performance from Covent Garden, London, of Natalia Osipova and Matthew Goldin at the ROH in my own city last Saturday and, what can I say, I left the theather sobbing in deepest recognition of the magnificent show displayed and still was allowed to buy meat this week.

'Swan Lake' is a worldly recognised masterpiece. Its soundtracks have been greatly been employed in many tragedy inspired movies, such as Bernard Rose's Anna Karenina and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, not to mention versions conceived specially for children, as Barbie's Swanlake softened adaptation. I dare to say, along with Beethoven's symphonies, the Swan Lake numerous variations must be the most famous classic music spread along the Earth.

Its plot is a combination of timeless main themes, such as redemption through love, political interest, parental authority, malicious manipulation and, of course, betrayal. It is based on a Russian Folklore legend related to Scandinavian Nibelungu's ring (however, this Siegfried is not the Scandinavian Siegried, a soldier who originally impairs with Iceland's Queen Brunhild).

On his twentieth-first birthday, Prince Siegfried is commanded by his mother to go 'shopping' for a wife. He's not much interested, nevertheless, and decides to go hunting a swan flock instead. So, lo and behold! He finds Odette, the Swam Queen, actually a princess whose enemy, the dark sorcerer Rothbart, has cursed to turn into a swan at daylight. Only true love can break the spell, so the villain is always vigilant in order to avoid any love interest approaching his victim.

Siegfried and Odette fall in love instantly, under Rothbart neverfading watch. The bastard sorcerer then turns his own daughter, Odille, into the Black Swan, in other words, a dancer whose appearence is the same as Odette, but her moves are less perfectly coordinated, and she is driven by more basic emotions, such as lust, envy, desire and hunger for power. As Odile seduces the Prince (as well as the audience), Odette watches from a window and returns to the flock completely hopeless and devastaded.

When Siegfried learns he has been fooled, he follows Odette and begs for forgiveness, in which he's fully attended. Sadly, Rothbarth and Odille come along and urge him to honour the word given and marry the Black Swan. Odette suddenly realises her only possible escape from the curse is Death, so she jumps from a cliff, followed by the so-redeemed Prince. This ending should provide a very Freudian interpretation, as the two possible life prompers are either Love or Death (or Eros & Tanathos, as you wish) and whenever the impulse of life, also known as sex, is lacking, the impulse of death takes over and leads to the destruction of the self, may it be naturally or metaphoricaly.

Sleeping Beauty is originally a Danish legend. Charles Perrault has put it into paper in its French version, which is the worldwide spread one. Tchaikovsky composed a very inspired collection for the ballet of this story and the waltz Phillip and Aurora dance by the end of the presentation is a dreamy song everyone remembers, as it was also used by Disney's classic movie. Sleeping Beauty is a symbol of univesal themes such as fate, royal standards, innocence and, obviously, love. A very anxiously expected princess heiress, baby Aurora is
being greeted by the whole realm, when evil witch Maleficent forget Angelina Jolie, for Christ's sake casts a curse condemning Aurora to fall into long sleep at the 16th birthday. Nevertheless, her three fairy Godmothers now we know Cinderella wasn't quite well born after all, since she had but one bless her with kindness and beauty, very attractive features to provide the third blessing which will be able to break the spell - the kiss of a true love will wake her up.


(to be continued)


Here some impressive performances of Swan Lake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rJoB...

[Verena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wiley's book about Tchaikovsky's ballets is a treasure of historical research, but it has an unusual structure.We need to get some time to get through some remarks about La Bayadere etc before this book is getting interesting.
Don't miss the libretto section in the ending of the book!
If you want to know about the original Swan Lake 1877 production, you can get to know a lot about the story, the dancers and certain circumstances, based on newspaper articles and holographs. So, we do actually a lot about this very first Swan Lake, in which Odette was supposed to be a swan maiden fairy instead of the enchanted princess as in the 1895 revival. Of course, we shouldn't restage the premiere (which was messing around with T. score), but it could be another attempt apart from the current trend with dreams and illusions. We get also some insights in Tchaikovsky's music, dealing with patterns and tonality characterization. However, Wiley's book is not so much helpful with speculating about sources and authorship of the libretto. It was very interesting for me to get to know about the fairy tale The stolen veil, and also about the opera Le lac des fees and the ballet La Fille du Danube (Wiley does not include the plot, so we might look it up by ourselves)- what a pity, that so many romantic works are lost! Swan Lake is a deeply romantic ballet, full of love and (dark) passion, themes such as fun vs duty, freedom vs obligation (that's my impression. No one else as the perfectly romantic Peter could have done it, in my opinion).
The background of Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker is also interesting, but for me, the Swan Lake mystery is the most fascinating!
Wiley's book is not easy to read, but it is very interesting for everyone who loves ballet history!

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must confess that I habitually finish every book I start, but not this one. The book was a recording on my digital recorder and the reader included not only the text of the book but the footnotes as he read. It just got way too tedious for me. I did learn some good and disappointing things about Tchaikovsky.

[Marc Haegeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential stuff to anyone interested in ballet, music and theatre.

[Eranga]

good book