Royal Opera House Screenings: Swan Lake

Swan Lake has held a special place in The Royal Ballet repertoire since 1934. The Royal Ballet now presents audiences with a new production featuring additional choreography by Liam Scarlett. While remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, Scarlett brings a fresh interpretation to this classical ballet in collaboration with designer John Macfarlane. Prince Siegfried encounters a flock of swans while hunting. When one of the swans—Odette—transforms into a beautiful woman, the prince is enchanted. However, Odette is under the spell of a curse that keeps her in swan form, and she can only take human shape at night. Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's first ballet work, initially received little attention when it premiered in 1877, despite being one of the most beloved works in ballet today. Thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, Swan Lake became an indispensable part not only of ballet history but of popular culture in a much broader sense.