First Performance

Lithograph of the first performance of Swan Lake.

            The first performance of Swan Lake was on the fourth of March in 1877. It was produced in Moscow and was performed at the Boshoi Theatre. This production was extremely unsuccessful. By all accounts, the choreography was unoriginal and unengaging; the production was low budget, and the music was considered too complex for a ballet (Wunder). Although at the time Tchaikovsky composed the music for Swan Lake he was virtually unknown, by the time it was produced he had gained fame and the audience had high expectations for this ballet. This first performance was a benefit for Pauline Karpakova (the ballerina who danced the role of Odette) so ticket prices were higher. Karpakova was unable to perform at the level that her part demanded so she insisted on adding in parts of other ballets she had performed by other choreographers that had been set to completely different music. None of this choreography was engaging to the audience because it was old and tedious (Samachson 91-92).  Although this performance of the Swan Lake was not a success, it did not immediately fall into obscurity. A few more productions were made and choreography (and music) was changed. The second ballerina to perform the role of Odette and Odile was Anna Sobeschanskaya. She travelled to St. Petersburg to have Marius Petipa choreograph a new, less dull solo for her. Petipa created a new solo for her using the music of Leon Minkus which infuriated Tchaikovsky. He considered Minkus an artless composer and created his own set of music to fit Sobeschanskaya’s new steps (Samachson 92).

1.           Dorothy and Joseph Samachson. The Russian Ballet and Three of Its Masterpieces. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company, 1971.

1.      Rachel Wunder, “Swan Lake - A History,” Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. Accessed March 31, 2014. http://www.gelseykirklandballet.org/swan-lake-a-history/.