70 years ago, in 1947 “Swan Lake” was first time performed on the Novosibirsk stage, the ageless classics, top of the Russian ballet. On 22nd June 2017 this ballet will be performed for the 1350th time.
Moreover, this year we celebrate 140 years since the first staging of Petr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s ingenious work. The first staging of one of the most popular ballet performances in the world in 1877, surprisingly, was called a failure; it was only recognized by the audience in 1895 when it was staged in the Mariinsky theatre with the choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.
Nowadays we watch the ninth rendition of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, and besides, “Swan Lake” almost never left the repertoire. Of course, the first version of this ballet never had a chance to live up to our days, but we still have a video of that first performance, which is very special, choreographed by M. Moiseyev, K. Salnikova, set design by B. Knoblok.
The ballet company of the theatre was very young, and not able to perform Petipa-Ivanov version. The performance was featured with the disciples of the theatre ballet studio. Lidiya Krupenina (later entitled the National Artist of the USSR) came to Novosibirsk in 1947 right after graduating from the choreography school at the Bolshoi theatre and debuted in pas-de-trois of the “Swan Lake” with Tatiana Zimina (the future National Artist of the RSFSR) and Sergey Ivanov who would later become an outstanding dancer and tutor. The lead parts were performed by principal dancers Marina Lentiayeva and Vera Yuvacheva. The Siegfried part was performed by Matvey Sabo, who moved to Novosibirsk from the Leningrad Maly Opera theatre and Oleg Pokrovsky, the graduate of the Moscow choreographic school who went to war right after graduation (he became a reconnaissance officer and fought till the very Victory), so his artistic career started already after the war here in Novosibirsk.
The first performance had a lot of interesting solutions – the vivid and spectacular afterpiece in the third act, the originally created and sewed costumes for the bride dance. The Spanish dance was performed by a soloist surrounded by four partners, six small swans (the canon version of Petipa – Ivanov there was 4 of them). 60 shows were put up during two seasons.
In 1949 the new production was made by a new chief ballet master Robert Gerbek, and since that time the Novosibirsk “Swan Lake” has a Petipa – Ivanov choreography. Then in 1955 there was a very original and curious version of “Swan Lake” by Mikhail Satunovsky a dramatic ballet devotee; that production was very well received in Moscow in 1955 (Odette and Odile parts performed by the brilliant L. Krupenina, T. Zimina, G. Balashova who later became principals). Apart from Petipa and Ivanov choreography that performance was also featured with A. Gorsky and V. Burmeister choreographic ideas. Odette and Odile parts were distributed for different ballerinas, the heroines met several times on the stage, Odile took part in Rotbart fight with the Prince in the last act and died with the Evil Genius in the end.
Two significant premieres of “Swan Lake” took place in 1962 and 1963, choreographed by the outstanding Petr Gusev and Yury Grigorovich who were in charge of the Novosibirsk ballet at that time. The first act was reconstructed precisely in Petipa’s version, the second act was done by Gusev based on the rendition by Kirov Leningrad theatre (Mariinsky now), the third act was done according to Gorsky’s choreography and some parts by P. Gusev. According to Grigorovich’s plan, the fourth scene must be featured with the eight black swans (by L. Ivanov). But that plan was never accomplished and the performance ended with Burmeister’s choreography. Then in 1963 the new rendition was created by Gusev and Vinogradov, the young choreographer, working at the Novosibirsk theatre ballet company at that time.
The black swans finally made it to the last scene of the “Swan Lake” in 1986, the performance produced by the Leningrad school disciples Gabriela Komleva and Tamara Turina. Since 1996 the ballet was performed with the choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev and Vladimir Burmeister (the performance was several times staged in Spain, Portugal, Japan, China, Netherland, Macau, Thaiwan).
Today’s version of “Swan Lake” is made in 2010. New rendition of the classic Petipa - Ivanov choreography is presented by Igor Zelensky and the magnificent setting worth the classic masterpiece is created by the Italian designer Louise Spinatelli. This production was well received on tour in Paris (2010, Théâtre du Châtelet), Madrid (2011, Teatro Real), South Korea (2012, 2014, 2015).
Generally, the touring life of the Novosibirsk “Swan Lake” is impressive. “The Ob river Swans” as called by French journalists, have visited 18 countries of the world. 1st September 1957 Tchaikovsky’s ballet opened the first abroad tour of the theatre in China. The ballet company visited China five times with the “Swan Lake”, three times in Japan, South Korea, and the Australian – New Zeeland tour in 1971 was record breaking – the performance was shown 44 times in three months.
“Swan Lake” is a litmus test paper for the ballerinas, a display of their skills – said Lidiya Krupenina – the thing is that you have to perform two antagonist characters at a time. You find a way to distinguish them, as the years go, but at first it’s hard to perform”.
More facts about the Novosibirsk “Swan Lake” are mentioned in a book by Valery Romm “The Big Theatre of Siberia”.
The next “Swan Lakes” performances will be held on 22nd June at 19.00, and 24th June at 13.00 and at 19.00. The tickets are available on the website and the box office of the theatre.
