Swan Lake

Swan Lake was the first of Tchaikovsky's three great ballets
The history of the ballet itself is shaky. Tchaikovsky originaly wrote a ballet for his sister's children, based on a popular Russian fairy tale entitled "Lake of the Swans." Little did Tchaikovsky know that he would be be commisioned years later by two great masters of Russian ballet, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, to compose a score for a new full-length ballet based on the same tale.

Detailed posting on the ballet itself in a later post(hopefully after iv heard it)If the music is so heavenly, I wonder how ethereal watching the ballet must be.
Enjoy a snippet for now.





Swan Lake tells the story of young Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with the Swan Queen Odette, a woman transformed into a bird by an evil sorcerer. Odette explains that she is destined to remain a strange composite creature, until rescued by a man's undying love.

Enthralled by her beauty, The Prince pledges his eternal love - but later, at a party in honor of his 21st birthday, he is tricked by the sorcerer, von Rothbart, into declaring his love for Odile, an evil twin of Odette. Realizing his inadvertent betrayal, the Prince rushes back to the lake. There, he battles Von Rothbart, and destroys his power. The lovers are then reunited.

click here