20 replies to this topic

[Rosa]

Premierdanseur, on May 22 2008, 03:39 AM, said:

And thats when Nureyev's version of the ballet comes i and makes everything logical. Since no normal guy whould fall for a bird (at least I hope not)   ..??....He made the story take place in Siegfried's head, as a long day dream.
The first act is as usual, but instead of going of hunting, Siegfried takes refuges in his own dreams, you know he's been brought up with to many romantic novels....! Odette and Odile are just "metafors" for his own ideals,....I guess???
and when he betrays the in his mind, he loses his reason......
thats one way to look at the story, Otherwise I guess you'll just have to go with the guy likes birds....  

Maybe Nureyev made the story logical, yet IMHO he also made it much less tragic. Having Odette and her betrayal just happening in Siegfried's mind caused me not to connect with either character, and left me feeling puzzled instead of sorrowful at the end.

[Mel Johnson]

That's another thing about the great classics.  If you have a ballet about magic, don't try to explain the trick.  You will either be unable to do it and leave the audience puzzled, or worse, like a spoilsport, even if you can explain why.  Don't try to make everything sensible.  Almost all great drama is based on the protagonists' inability to act in their own best interest.

[Helene]

dancerboy87, on May 21 2008, 03:25 PM, said:

Swan Lake is a very strange ballet.....I also wonder how can Siegfried fall in love with a bird(the Swan) and take him to a party to introduce she/it to his mother:"Mum that's my new girlfr....ehm....bird.Can I marry her?"....hahahahah!!!!and then,if at night Odette gets back to being a woman,why does she dance and behave as a Swan in the second act,when she is supposed to meet her prince as a woman ?i don't think there is any aswer to these questions...

Siegfried is in a strange place when he leaves the palace/palace grounds (or in Kudelka's version, the local saloon).  He's about to be forced into a decision he doesn't want to make, and he thinks there's something else out there.  He's in the dark forest in the middle of the night, and he's up for something different.

Odette is an exotic.  She's not a swan physically, literally, but like anyone else who's not an actor or an actress, you can dress them up to look one way, even a way that is part of themselves, but the rest of them is still in another world.  (Hence the swan movement.)  Look at old photos of immigrants who are in formal dress of their new countries and how half still in the world from which they came.  They still move the same way.

And while Odette may not have made much of an impression at the party -- skittish, sad, withdrawn, however regal -- Odile makes a grand entrance in a little black dress (originally red and gold, no?), is as sociable as can be -- convinces Mama to give her a chance, with the help of Von Rothbart, charms the pants off of everyone at the party, and speaks to the Prince on a hormonal as well as spiritual level.  (Odette would make a horrible Princess; she'd be a recluse like Tsarina Alexandra, and look how that turned out.)  What more could a Prince want?

Odile shines under bright lights, in public.  Odette under moonlight, in an intimate setting.

"Swan Lake" is about psychological truth, not literal truth.

[jllaney]

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong but in the Kirov version with Mezentseva doesn't she prevent him from making the vow by lowering his hand?

[cubanmiamiboy]

Helene, on May 22 2008, 04:16 PM, said:

Odile makes a grand entrance in a little black dress

...loved that Helene! he,he

[Rosa]

jllaney, on May 22 2008, 10:22 PM, said:

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong but in the Kirov version with Mezentseva doesn't she prevent him from making the vow by lowering his hand?

At the end of Act II she lowers his hand after he's made the vow. Since the mime is not included in the Kirov version, he does not make/attempt the vow at the beginning of the act.