To celebrate its 75th season, English National Ballet gives cinemagoers the world over the opportunity to enjoy its performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall, which took place earlier this year. Starring Sanguen Lee and Albert Haw, this spectacular performance gives a 360-degree view of Derek Deane’s production, with Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score played by the English National Ballet Philharmonic, conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Gavin Sutherland.
This production of Swan Lake in-the-round brings to the screen the captivating romance between Prince Siegfried and the Swan Queen Odette, together with the unforgettable image of 60 swans – onstage at one time – and exquisite choreography. Filmed live at the Royal Albert Hall, this special cinema event includes unique overhead angles, giving audiences an aerial view of the exceptional artistry, gorgeous spectacle and compelling drama of this production, described by The Daily Telegraph as “Truly awe-inspiring”, and by The Financial Times as “Magic in real time”.
Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write the score for Swan Lake in 1875, by the director of the Moscow Imperial Theatre, Vladimir Begichev, who was eager to promote the artistry of Russia’s master composer. It is also believed that Begichev crafted the story of Swan Lake, which was most likely to have been adapted from Russian and Germanic folk and fairy tales.
The original version of Swan Lake was choreographed by Julius Reisinger and premiered unsuccessfully at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on February 20, 1877, due to Reisinger’s inability to cope with Tchaikovsky’s symphonic-style score. It wasn’t until 1895 that Marius Petipa, director of the Mariinsky Ballet company, decided to stage a ballet using the composer’s debut score. He and his assistant Lev Ivanov re-choreographed the ballet, and composer Riccardo Drigo, then chief conductor at the St Petersburg Imperial Theatre, was charged with revising the score – the version which most choreographers follow today. The premiere of this new and hugely influential interpretation of Swan Lake took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on January 15, 1895 – and today it’s acknowledged to be one of the most popular ballets in the repertoire.
English National Ballet presents Derek Deane’s spectacular production of Swan Lake in-the-round in cinemas worldwide on October 30th, 2024. To book tickets go to this link.
Information sourced from:
English National Ballet programme notes
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