[Le Lac des cygnes] (1952)
Ballet in four acts by Vladimir Petrovitch Begichev and Vassily Fedorovitch Geltzer
Abbreviations:
M Music by
S Scenery by
C Costumes by
D Danced by
FP First performance
NP New production
R Reproduced by
ST Staging (indicates that the ballet was produced in substantially its original form)
Choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, produced by
Nicholas Sergeyev; revised by Ninette de Valois, with additions by
Frederick Ashton
M Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (ballet, opus 20)
SC Leslie Hurry
D Odette/Odile: Beryl Grey; Prince Siegfried: John Field
Act I Valse (Pas de six): Rosemary Lindsay, Mary Drage,
Svetlana Beriosova, Alexander Grant, Kenneth Melville,
Philip Chatfield
Act III Neopolitan Dance: Julia Farron, Alexander Grant
(sometimes given separately as a divertissement)
FP Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, London, 18 December
1952
ST Royal Ballet touring section
D Odette/Odile: Rowena Jackson;
Siegfried: Philip Chatfield
FP Royal Opera House, London, 27 June 1958
NP Royal Ballet, under the title Swan Lake; production devised
and staged by Robert Helpmann, with additional choreography
by Frederick Ashton, Rudolf Nureyev (Polonaise, Act I, and
Mazurka, Act II) and Maria Fay (Czárdás, Act II)
M re- edited by John Lanchbery
SC Carl Toms
Prologue (dropped from 4 March 1967): D Odette: Margot Fonteyn; Rothbart: Keith Rosson; Princess
Odette's attendants: corps de ballet
Act I Scene 1 Waltz: D Deanne Bergsma, Vyvyan Lorrayne, Monica Mason, Rosalind Eyre,
Carole Needham, Vergie Derman, Robert Mead, Anthony Dowell, Bryan
Lawrence, David Drew, Austin Bennett, Kenneth Mason
Act I Scene I Pas de quatre: D Antoinette Sibley, Merle Park, Brian Shaw, Graham Usher
Act I Scene 2 (formerly Act II) Dance of the Four Swans: D Deanne
Bergsma, Monica Mason, Vergie Derman, Carol Needham
Act II (formerly Act III) Dance of the Guests: D corps
de ballet
Act II Spanish Dance: D Georgina Parkinson, Monica Mason, Desmond Doyle, Christopher Gable
Act II Neapolitan Dance: D Merle Park, Alexander Grant
Act III (formerly Act IV): D Odette: Margot
Fonteyn; Siegfried: David Blair; Rothbart:
Keith Rosson;
Swans, Cygnets: corps de ballet
FP Royal Opera House, London, 12 December 1963
NP Royal Ballet touring section; choreography revised by Frederick
Ashton and John Field, with additions by Frederick Ashton as in
1952/1963
SC Leslie Hurry
D Odette/Odile: Nadia Nerina; Siegfried:
Attilio Labis
Act I Waltz (Pas de six) (1952): D Anya Linden, Christine Beckley,
Deirdre O'Conaire, David Wall, Piers Beaumont, Jelko Yuresha
Act III Neapolitan Dance: D Shirley Grahame, Michael Coleman
Act III Spanish Dance: D Jennifer Layland,
Christine Beckley, Jelko Yuresha, Richard Farley
FP Royal Opera House, London, 18 May 1965
NP Royal Ballet; the touring section's 1965 production but with
Ashton's 1965 Waltz, Pas de quatre, Neapolitan and Spanish Dances,
And Act IV (formerly called Act III); from 25 October 1972 Ashton's
Act IV was dropped and Ivanov's restored, Petipa's Pas de trois was
restored to Act I and Ashton's Pas de quatre moved to Act III
SC Leslie
Hurry
D Odette/Odile: Antoinette Sibley; Siegfried: Anthony Dowell; Rothbart:
Derek Rencher
Pas de quatre: D Lesley Collier, Laura Connor, Michael Coleman, Robert Mead
Neapolitan Dance: D Lesley Collier, Alexander Grant
Spanish Dance: D Rosalind Eyre, Monica Mason, Robert Mead, Carl
Myers
FP Royal Opera House, London, 17 February 1971
ST Ballet for All; pas de quatre (1963) only
FP Wycliffe College, Stroud, 10
October 1978
NP Royal Ballet; production by Norman Morrice; this production included
the following numbers by Ashton:
Act I Waltz (1963)
Act II Pas de quatre (1963): D Wendy Ellis, Hilary Tickner, Julian Hosking, Mark Silver
Neapolitan Dance (1952): D Rosemary Taylor, Wayne Sleep
Spanish Dance (1963): D Rosalind Eyre, Jacqui
Tallis, Ashley Page, Stephen Sheriff
Act IV (1963): D Odette: Lesley Collier; Siegfried: David Wall
FP Royal Opera House, London, 5 December 1979
NP Royal Ballet; production by Anthony Dowell
SC Yolanda
Sonnabend
This production was first staged at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, in 1987, when it included none of Ashton's
choreography; the Neapolitan Dance was added in 1991:
D Nicola Roberts, Simon Rice
FP Metropolitan Opera House, New York NY, 8 July 1991
By other companies:
ST Fonteyn World Tour; Neapolitan Dance, in Divertissements from Swan
Lake
D Pamela Moncur, Alexander Grant
FP Herod Atticus Theatre,
Athens, 9 August 1965
ST State Ballet of Turkey; Neapolitan Dance, in a production by Dudley
Tomlinson
FP National Theatre, Ankara, 29 October 1965
ST Pennsylvania Ballet; Neapolitan Dance, in Divertissements from
Swan Lake: R Christopher Newton
FP Academy of Music, Philadelphia,
20 September 1972
ST Palm Beach Festival; Neapolitan Dance only
D Antoinette Peloso, Gary
Chryst
FP West Palm Beach Auditorium, Palm Beach FL, 22 March 1983
NP London Festival Ballet; production and choreography by Natalia
Makarova, after Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, with additional
choreography by Frederick Ashton
S Gunther Schneider-Siemssen
C Dietmar Solt
Act I Waltz (1963)
Act II Pas de quatre (1963): D Andria Hall, Janette Mulligan, Koen Ouzia, Matz Skoog
Neapolitan Dance (1952): D Karen Gee, Matz Skoog
Act IV (1963): D Odette: Trinidad
Sevillano; Siegfried: Patrick Armand
FP Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, 12 April 1988
ST Pas de quatre only: Rambert School: R Therese Cantine and Diana
Vere
D Saari Minamoto, Joe Monaghan, Pablo Sansalvador-Chambert,
Ayako Toyama
FP Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, 18 May 2004
NP English National Ballet; choreography by Derek Deane, after Marius
Petipa and Lev Ivanov; additional choreography by Frederick Ashton
SC
Peter Farmer
Act I Waltz (1963), Act II Pas de quatre (1963): D Clara
Barbara, Sarah Mcllroy, Shi-Ning Liu, Nathan Coppen
Neapolitan Dance (1952): D Amanda Armstrong, Yosvani Ramos
FP Mayflower, Southampton, 16 October 2000 (preview 14 October 2000)
NP Perm Ballet; production and choreography by Natalia Makarova, after Lev
Ivanov and Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev
and Frederick Ashton
S Peter Farmer
C Galina Solovyova
Act I Waltz (1963), Act IV (1963): D Odette: Elena Kulagina; Siegfried: Inaki
Urlezaga
FP P.I.Tchaikovsky State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Perm, 13 May 2005
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan