Swan Lake (Nureyev)
Rudolf Nureyev choreographed two different versions of Swan Lake. The first, with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, premiered at the Vienna Opera House on 15 October 1964, with Nureyev dancing Prince Siegfried and Margot Fonteyn as Odette/Odile. Their performance received 89 curtain calls, still the Guinness World Record for the number of calls for a ballet.
While Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s 1895 choreography centered on the figure of Odette, the Swan Queen, Nureyev shifted the ballet’s focus to Prince Siegfried. Swan Lake became an exploration of Siegfried’s dreams, desires and delusions. In Freudian analysis, a lake is often used as a symbol for the subconscious mind. The lake where Siegfried drowns becomes an expansive metaphor for his own troubled psyche. The dual character of Odette/Odile also becomes a metaphor for Siegfried’s struggle between ideals of sacred and profane love.
Nureyev’s second version of Swan Lake, created for the Paris Opéra Ballet, premiered at the Palais Garnier on 20 December 1984. With sets and costumes by the design team of Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino, the leading roles were danced by Elisabeth Platel and Charles Jude. Nureyev played the dual role of the tutor/Von Rothbart at performances the following year and on through the second half of the 1980s.
In this rendition, Nureyev explored the theme of dreams and visions even more intensely, by including a prologue depicting Siegfried asleep in an armchair. In his dreams, he sees a raptor in pursuit of a beautiful woman. She morphs into a swan and is immediately snatched up and carried away by the monstrous bird. These dark images foreshadow the tragic events to come.
In the Paris production, Nureyev presents Siegfried as a figure of Byronic melancholy, reluctant to assume the responsibilities attached to coming of age. Siegfried’s desire to remain unmarried puts him in conflict with both his boyhood tutor and his mother. Feeling trammeled by the narrow life he is expected to lead, Siegfried seeks an escape from reality. When he encounters the enchanted figure of Odette,the Swan Queen, he comes face to face with the embodiment of his fantasies.
Nureyev’s choreography for the flock of swans is a stellar example of his ability to arrange large groups of dancers in mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic patterns. Critics noted that the airy delicacy of their movements provides a hauntingly birdlike effect.
Unlike most productions, Nureyev’s offer no blissful reunion of Siegfried and Odette, no apotheosis. Influenced by John Cranko’s 1963 revision of Swan Lake, both versions of Nureyev’s choreography end in tragedy. In the 1964 production, great rafts of dark, silky fabric are cast across the stage, thrashing up and down to give the effect of tempestuous waters. Odette skims gracefully across the surface of the lake as Siegfried is pulled down to his watery grave. In the 1984 version, the evil sorcerer Rothbart carries Odette away while Siegfried watches, horrified and helpless.
Both versions of Nureyev’s choreography are remarkable for their demanding, virtuosic solos, intricate symbolism, and deft psychological explorations of the lead roles.
The Paris Opéra production of Swan Lake entered the repertory of La Scala, Milan, on 7 July 1990. The leading roles were taken by Isabel Seabra and Charles Jude, with Nureyev playing Rothbart.
Nureyev’s Swan Lake is still in repertoire today.