Given its status today, perhaps the most loved and admired of all classical ballets. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake… ?VIDEO

Lebedinoye Ozero, Op. 20 is a ballet written by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875-1876. Despite the initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time. The script, originally two acts, was based on Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess who is turned into a swan by the curse of an evil sorcerer.

The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger (Vaclav Reisinger). The ballet premiered on 4 March 1877 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Although presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their productions both choreographically and musically on an 1895 revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on 15 January 1895 at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky’s score was re-edited by the chief conductor and composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, Riccardo Drigo.