SWAN LAKE OPENS 2006-2007 SEASON AT FOX, OCTOBER 6-7
September 13, 2006..... Dance St. Louis heads into its fifth decade of bringing the world's great dance to St. Louis audiences with a timeless tale of love and dark magic, the classic ballet Swan Lake, in a lush production by Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre with Tchaikovsky's haunting music played live by the Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis. Dance St. Louis and Emerson present Swan Lake at the Fox Theatre on Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 7, at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $39-$68. They are available at the Dance St. Louis box office in Grand Center at 3547 Olive St., the Centene Center for Arts and Education. They are also available at the Fox Theatre box office at 527 N. Grand and all MetroTix outlets, by phone at Dance St. Louis at 314-534-6622 or MetroTix at 314-534-1111, and via dancestlouis.org. Handling charges apply to all phone, Internet and outlet sales.
Dance St. Louis Artistic and Executive Director Michael Uthoff will host a free program, Speaking of Dance, with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr in the Fox Theatre Marquee Room at 7:15 p.m. prior to both performances.
Founded in 1969, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre with 30 dancers is the eighth largest ballet company in the U.S. "Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has grown by leaps and bounds," says Michael Uthoff, "and established itself among the elite dance companies of America." Terrence Orr, a celebrated ballet master and former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre whose career spans more than 40 years, is embarking on his tenth season as artistic director.
Swan Lake is the story of the love between Odette, a young woman who has been transformed by a malevolent sorcerer into a swan, and Prince Siegfried, who finds Odette and her bewitched companions by an enchanted lake. Siegfried vows to break the spell by staying true to Odette for eternity, but runs tragically afoul of the sorcerer's evil daughter and his own character flaws. Tchaikovsky's music sweeps the audience through the many worlds of the ballet, from the lighthearted festivities of the royal court, to the passionate tenderness of Odette and Siegfried's duets, to the mysterious moonlit lake. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake is based on the traditional 19 th -century choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, staged and directed with individual touches by Orr.
" Swan Lake is a masterpiece of music, with beautiful, sensual bodies on stage in a dramatic love story," Orr says. The ballet is extremely popular with audiences and a touchstone work for a ballet company. Its themes are universal: good versus evil, first love, longing, trust, deception, betrayal, and redemption. The central situation, a human transformed into a bird, appears in mythologies around the world. "Siegfried goes into the woods--there's that metaphor--and there he falls in love. That could be anywhere," says Orr. "And there are obstructions, which is what happens when you fall in love and you have to find how you can get over those barriers. It's happened to every one of us."
Perhaps because Swan Lake never took definitive form during Tchaikovsky's lifetime, the ballet changes--sometimes drastically--every time it is staged. Each director chooses which sections of the music to use, how much original choreography to interpolate, how to interpret the characters and, even if the Petipa/Ivanov storyline is retained, how to end the ballet. Finales range from unrelieved tragedy, with Odette doomed to become a swan forever, to a happy ending in which Siegfried defeats the sorcerer in a duel. Terrence Orr has chosen to adhere to the ending created for Petipa and Ivanov by Tchaikovsky's brother, Modeste, in which the lovers sacrifice themselves but are triumphantly reunited after death.
"I've always believed in that ending," Orr says. "Only something so strong as love and desire could break such a major spell. And the idea of giving up so much for your soulmate is important to me."
Orr also retains the spectacular double role for the leading ballerina in which she plays both the pure and loving Odette and her "evil twin," the enticing, predatory Black Swan.
At the heart of any production is always Tchaikovsky's score. "The music captures the romance of love, that first sense of falling in love," Orr says.
Tchaikovsky originally wrote the music for Swan Lake in 1877 for a production in Moscow, but the ballet did not achieve acclaim until after his death in 1893. For a grand memorial performance to honor the composer, the second act--the heart of the ballet, when Prince Siegfried meets the ensorcelled Swan Queen--was rechoreographed by Lev Ivanov, assistant ballet master of the Tsar's Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. The production was so popular that Ivanov and Marius Petipa, the Imperial ballet master, subsequently revived the entire ballet. Debuting in 1895, their version became the standard on which most subsequent versions have been based. Orr created his Swan Lake for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 1998.