Prepare for a three-hankie evening with Ballet West's revival of "Swan Lake," for the tragic ending has been restored.
In addition, there will be no Jester, several numbers have been cut or telescoped, two intermissions have been eliminated and general tightening has taken place under the hand of John Hart, artistic director, who is staging the work.While many may find themselves foregoing their special tidbits of action and favorite variations in this queen among ballets, Hart nonetheless has come down on the side of brevity, believing that few ballet converts are made after 10 p.m. "Most ballets cannot support extraordinary length," he said. "Ballet should first and foremost be entertainment."
Ballet West has scheduled 10 regular performances of "Swan Lake" at the Capitol Theater, plus a tribute to business on Thursday, Sept. 14. Evening performances, all at 7:30, will continue on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 15 and 16 and Tuesday through Saturday, Sept. 19-23, with matinees on Sept. 16, 17 and 23 at 2 p.m. Tickets ranging from $7 to $28 ($36 grand tier) are now on sale at the ballet ticket office in the Capitol Theater, 533-5555, or at Smith's Tix. Again this season, students may buy tickets at $4.
Hart's version is built upon firm terrain - the 1895 St. Petersburg production of the classic by Petipa-Ivanov-Tchaikovsky, at the Maryinsky Theater. There, after three previous failures, the Swan soared to immortality.
"My version descends from the Vic-Wells production of 1934 in London, starring Alicia Markova and Robert Helpmann, just before I joined that company as a dancer," said Hart. "It was staged by Nicholas Sergeyev, former principal dancer of the St. Petersburg troupe, who was regisseur when Petipa and Ivanov were working with `Swan Lake.' Sergeyev became regisseur-general of the St. Petersburg Ballet, remaining there until 1917, and he brought voluminous notes with him when he left Russia in 1918.
"This bypasses the Moscow version, based on Alexander Gorsky's 1911 interpretation, which introduced the Jester and the happy ending, with the prince united to a girlish Odette, changed back into human form. This is the story that most Russian companies tell today, a story that accords better with the Soviet aesthetic philosophy known as `social realism.' "
Changing "Swan Lake," and indeed many works in the classical repertory, has become choreographers' meat and drink. Most recently "Swan Lake" has been seen in versions (sometimes idiosyncratic ones) by Anthony Dowell for the Royal Ballet, Helgi Tommason for the San Francisco Ballet, and Baryshnikov for the American Ballet Theatre.
With so many personal interpretations confusing the issue, Hart considers it not only desirable but necessary to consider the original production of 1895, and maintain it wherever possible. He has tampered little with the white acts of Ivanov, but elsewhere he has striven for a more logical development of events, changing the order of dances to this end.
"There is no really `true' choreography for the first act, and we have cut the pas de trois and substituted a grand valse, using all of Tchaikovsky's music in this context. Bruce Caldwell has choreographed a big, exciting dance for a large corps of 12 women and six men," said Hart.
"The Kirov introduced a solo for Prince Siegfried alone, which Nureyev originally asked for. But we have put it in more logically, right after he has talked to his mother about her desires for his immediate marriage. This melancholy solo is followed by a peasant Polacca, again choreographed by Caldwell.
"Then we have a transition using the Swan theme into the second, white act - the heart of the ballet for most people, Lev Ivanov's most cherished choreography, which has been excerpted many times and presented alone. This remains pretty much unaltered."
In the third act, the Prince's birthday ball, Hart has changed the order of the music, with less character (folk-type) dancing. There will be a Hungarian Czardas and Neopolitan Tarentella, but no Mazurka, Spanish or Russian variations.
"The fiancees will parade before the young prince for his selection, and then the Black Swan, Odile, enters with Von Rothbart," said Hart. "It has always seemed illogical to me for her to come on long before she does her big dance, as so often happens. So we have her launch immediately into her bravura seductive pas de deux, with the deception scene and dramatic exit."
Rather than an intermission, a longish orchestral Entr'acte will separate the third act from the fourth act, where the curtain rises on the ghostly lake, setting the scene for the lovers' final conflict with evil. The Utah Symphony will perform Tchaikovsky's beautiful score, conducted by Ballet West music director Terence Kern.
The role of the Swan Queen is the ultimate test for the ballerina, requiring the plastic, yielding lines of the bewitched maiden, Odette, in contrast with the sure execution and wicked bravado of her counterpart, Odile.
Four of Ballet West's principal ballerinas will create this role, partnered by four Siegfrieds: Pamela Robinson with Raymond Van Mason, Jane Wood with Robert Arbogast, Lisa Lockerd with Charles Flachs, and Lisa La Manna with Joseph Woelfel. The sorcerer Von Rothbart will be performed by Bruce Caldwell, Flachs and Van Mason.
Following its Salt Lake appearances, Ballet West will take its "Swan Lake" on tour Sept. 26-30 to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Ohio State University in Columbus, and Pennsylvania State University in College Park.