Swan Lake

Ballet Swan Lake

synonym

Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky's ballet) generally refers to the ballet swan lake

Tchaikovsky's Ballet Swan Lake, 4 acts, was written in 1876. This is the first dance music written by Tchaikovsky. It is based on folklore. The plot is: Princess ojeta is transformed into a white swan by the devil on the Bank of Swan Lake. Prince ziegfried traveled Swan Lake and fell in love with ojeta. On the night when the prince chooses his bride, the devil lets his daughter black swan disguise as ojeta to cheat the prince. Prince almost cheated, and finally found out in time, fight the devil, kill it. The White Swan regains the original shape of the princess and combines with the prince to achieve a happy ending.

artistic value

Why does a ballet have such strong charm and vitality? How does the classic of this classical ballet stage play go through the tempering of the times and leave an irreplaceable position in the hearts of the audience? I think there are three main points.

The first is the king of melody. Swan Lake was written by the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky in 1876. He used symphonic writing techniques to construct a grand music scene, many of which have become classics handed down from generation to generation. In this ballet, there are sobbing pipe music whimpering to express Princess ojeta's pure inner world; there are gorgeous and bright dance music to show Prince ziegfried's sunshine and vitality.

The second point is the pure and beautiful fairy tale. The story of Swan Lake is based on the folk story, that is, the devil turns the beautiful girl into a swan, but the power of love and justice finally overcomes the evil. At first, swan lake had two different endings, usually mixed: in the first version, the prince was bewildered by the illusion, and finally died with Princess ojeta; but in the famous St. Petersburg version, although the ending music was sad, it was a happy ending of love conquering evil.

The third point is the shock of 32 "whips". In the third act of Swan Lake, the famous black swan ogilia solo variation, the black swan has to do 32 one legged standing rotations called "whiplash". This stunt was created by Italian Ballerina pirina legnani in 1892 and appeared in the St. Petersburg version. With exquisite feeling, light dancing posture, tenacious endurance and perfect skills, the dancer interprets the completely different spiritual world of white swan and black swan. This unique skill has been preserved in Swan Lake and has become a touchstone to measure the strength of ballet performers and troupes.

Finally, I want to say, beautiful story, beautiful music, story with music, become more exciting; music with story, become more imaginative. As an eternal classic, even a hundred years or a thousand years later, the spiritual shock brought by this work is unforgettable.

Introduction to the plot

Introduction

The princess ojetta, who is picking flowers by the lake, is transformed into a beautiful swan by the vicious curse of rosbate. She can only return to human form at night. Only faithful love can break the evil magic.

Act one

When the old king died, Prince chigfried would soon succeed to the throne, so he had to get married. For fear of losing his freedom, the prince would not marry a man he did not love. On the occasion of the prince's 21st birthday, he and his friends gathered in the courtyard of the castle. The servant Banno arranged a birthday party and tried to make the prince happy. Unexpectedly, the queen arrived suddenly. She was surprised at the noisy party and reminded the prince that the palace was still in the period of national mourning. The queen left behind a dejected chigfried. Banno asked the two socialites to dance to please the prince. When he was happy, Banno also danced enthusiastically to toast the future king. At the end of the dance, a group of swans flew over the prince's head in pairs. Banno suggested that the prince try the new crossbow. They hunted and chased the swans in the direction they flew.

Act two

The prince and Banno came to the lake. The prince sent Banno to look for the swan. Left alone, he attracted the attention of the demon lord Rothbart.

Suddenly a swan approached, the prince was surprised to see a dignified and noble Swan slowly turned into a beautiful Tingting girl. The beautiful girl told the handsome prince about her miserable life. It turned out that she was a princess named ojetta. The evil devil turned her and her friends into swans. They could only recover their human form in the middle of the night. Only faithful love can break the evil magic. The prince firmly believed that the princess was the one he missed so much.

The demon king is found eavesdropping on one side. The prince wants to shoot him. Ojeta pleads with the prince not to kill the demon king, otherwise the charm will never be broken. Ojeta warned the prince that if he broke the oath of love, she would be a swan forever. At dawn, the prince vowed to save her from suffering and to keep this eternal love in mind. Ojeta and her companions turned back into swans and went back to the lake.

Act Three

The princes had to choose a fiancee from the ballroom of the castle where all the beauties of the world gathered. The princesses danced one after another to please the prince, but the prince's thoughts were not on them and refused to make a choice. A loud bugle sounded, announcing the arrival of two uninvited guests. They are the disguised envoys of Lord Rothbart and his daughter, ogilia. Rosbate turns ogilia into ojeta. The prince is fascinated by the unidentified visitor who looks like ojeta. He is convinced that the swan princess is on the dance floor.

While the prince dances with ogilia, ojeta appears in the window. She asks the prince to remember his oath to her, but at this time, the prince has been confused and distracted by the magic charm. At the request of the devil, the prince raised his hand and made a love vow to ogilia - the devil's plot succeeded, and ojeta left in despair. All of a sudden, thunder and lightning, chaos in the dance hall, the prince desperately wake up, but it's too late, he has promised love to others again. The deceived Prince rushed out to find the real ojeta.

Act four

Comedy ending:

The sad ojeta returns to Swan Lake, heartbroken. The devil created a blizzard to stop the prince from looking for ojeta.

The prince finally found ojeta, but the infinite truth and regret can't change the consequences of breaking the contract. The charm can't be broken any more. The prince and the princess will be separated from each other. The devil showed his ferocious face and turned the princesses and girls into swans floating on the lake. The indignant Prince and Princess hugged each other and jumped into the flood of the lake with the belief that they would rather die than love. At that moment, the miracle of time appeared, justice conquered evil, faithful love conquered evil demons, magic was broken, the cave collapsed, the lake ebbed, and the Swan girls were reborn.

The prince and the princess bathed in the sunshine of the rising sun, and a good life began again.

Tragic ending:

The prince and the White Swan both fell in love with each other in the lake. The magic of other swans was removed and the devil died. (e.g. abt, UK, Sheba, etc.)

The prince was killed by the devil's magic, and the swan's magic was not relieved. The swan was taken away by the devil. (such as nuriev edition, Paris Opera House, Vienna National Opera House, Liaoning Ballet, etc.)

Music analysis

The music of Swan Lake is like a lyric poem with romantic color. Each scene of the music is extremely outstanding in the description of the scene, the promotion of dramatic contradictions, and the depiction of the character and heart of each character, which has a profound symphony. These dance music, which is full of poetic and dramatic power and highly symphonic development principle, is the result of the author's major reform of ballet music, thus becoming an epoch-making work in the history of dance music development. Many of them are masterpieces, here we can only choose a few of them to introduce.

At the beginning of the prelude of the dance drama, the oboe blows out a soft tune, leading to the clue of the story. This is a variant of the Swan Theme, which outlines the moving and miserable picture of the girl who has been transformed into a swan by magic.

The most familiar part of the song is the music at the end of the first act. This scene is a grand dance to celebrate the prince's coming of age. The music is mainly composed of various gorgeous, bright and passionate dance music. At the end of the first act, a group of swans appear in the night sky. This is the first time that the theme of swans appears in the music. It is full of gentle beauty and sadness. Accompanied by the trills of harp and violin, it is played successively by oboe and string.

"Hungarian Dance" is the Hungarian folk "chardash dance". The first half of the music is soothing and sad, such as the preparation before the dance. The second half of the music has a strong rhythm, which shows the dancer's ruggedness and is a fanatical dance music.

The music of Spanish dance is full of strong Spanish national flavor, and the accompaniment color of Spanish castanel is bright, which emphasizes the national characteristics of music. The first half of the music is full of enthusiasm and warm atmosphere, while the second half is full of singing and melody.

Napoli is a very famous Italian style dance music. The whole dance music is mainly played by trumpet. The music is lively, the first half is steady, the second half is faster and faster, and the atmosphere is more and more warm. It is a Tarantella folk dance music.

"Four little swans dance" is also one of the most popular dance music in the drama, the music is relaxed and lively, rhythm