Swan Lake

Information on Swan Lake

Swan Lake is a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky presented in either four Acts, four Scenes (primarily outside Russia and Eastern Europe) or three Acts, four Scenes (primarily in Russia and Eastern Europe), based on an ancient German legend. It was originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger and first presented as The Lake of the Swans by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre on 4 March 1877 in Moscow. Although the ballet is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their staging both choreographically and musically on the revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, staged for the Imperial Ballet and first presented on 15 January 1895 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's kapellmeister Riccardo Drigo.