TCHAIKOVSKY, P.I.: Swan Lake (Zurich Ballet, 2009)
Swan Lake, Op. 20
Composer: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich
Ballet Company: Zurich Opera House Ballet
Choreographer: Spoerli, Heinz
Original Choreographer: Petipa, Marius
Odette: Semionova, Polina
Odille: Semionova, Polina
Prince Siegfried: Jermakov, Stanislav
Queen: Pellmont, Karin
Rothbart: Mehrabyan, Arsen
Corps de Ballet: Zurich Opera House Ballet
Orchestra: Zurich Opera House Orchestra
Conductor: Fedoseyev, Vladimir
Television Director: Sommer, Andy
Lighting Designer: Gebhardt, Martin
Set Designer: Wonder, Erich
Costumer Designer: Gerkan, Florence von
Date of Production: 10-2009
Venue: Opernhaus Zurich
Playing Time: 02:10:28
Catalogue Number: BAC055
UPC: 3760115300552
A Swan Lake for our times.
A magical version of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece by the Zurich Ballet and choreographer Heinz Spoerli.
Swan Lake for our times capable of transporting the audience to another world. The magic in the story suddenly takes hold of the viewer. Ballet is not simply a way of telling the story. Rather than gestures asking to be deciphered, the choreographer created large-scale, visionary movements closer to an artistic language of symbols and plays on the whole spectrum of human emotions. It always maintains a relationship of creative tension with its surroundings, especially the music, the poetry of the set, the use of light and colour, the texture of the costumes.
A key element of this artistic responsibility is to tell the story precisely but openly, without pinning it down, especially the ending - an ending which is in a many-facetted sense a "deliverance." Does this mean that the lovers are saved? Is the spell's power broken? Are there other kinds of salvation and deliverance? Perhaps even by death and transfiguration?
