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2020 marks the 180th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's birth, and music and dance circles around the world are commemorating the great Russian composer in different forms.
I. The classic ballet "Swan Lake" that began with failure and ended
Swan Lake is the first of Tchaikovsky's three most famous ballets. But many people may not know that the premiere at the Bolshoi Theater on March 4, 1877, ended in failure. One of the reasons is that the talent of the choreographer Julius Lesinger could not control this great music. Another reason is that Pauline Kabakova, the female star who starred in "Swan Lake" at that time, could not understand Tchaikovsky's music, and even counted their beats, and forcibly replaced some of the dance drama music she had starred in replacing several pieces of music of Lao Chai, so that the music of "Swan Lake" was fragmented and failure was inevitable.
On February 29, 1894, a year after Tchaikovsky's death, Lev Ivanov rearranged and performed the second act of Swan Lake, and then on February 8, 1895, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov jointly completed a rearrangement of the whole play and staged it at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, which became an eternal classic, with neatly arranged group dances, four little swan dances, a love double dance between white swans and princes, and 32 "fouettes" with black swans domineeringly exposed. (Whipwing) and several different style of personality dances are the topics that everyone talks about.
II. Different Versions of the Ballet "Swan Lake"
New Chinese Ballet started from the establishment of the Beijing Dance School in 1954, and with the help of Soviet experts, it embarked on an extraordinary path of creation from scratch. In 1958, led by a team led by Soviet expert Gu Xuefu, the children of the dance school rehearsed "Swan Lake", and Bai Shuxiang, who was only a fourth-grade student at the time, was selected as the actor of the white swan, and since then, she has had the world's classic ballet "Swan Lake" performed by Chinese herself, and Bai Shuxiang became the first white swan in China.
Bai Shuxiang plays the white swan
Founded in 1959, the National Ballet of China has performed several different versions of "Swan Lake", in addition to the original version of the Soviet Union GuShev, in 2003 invited to Beijing Renyi's stage design Yi Liming made a "wrought iron" version, the design style of the stage costume is very advanced, the black swan TUTU is leather texture, the bride candidates are sitting on the wheelchair modified throne, indeed people are brain-opening, refreshing, But the overall story structure and choreography still follow the Russian version of the reunion ending, in which the prince fights the demon on the lakeside and eventually defeats the demon and saves the princess.
The Natalia Macalova version introduced by China Ballet in 2007 is recognized as the most beautiful, dancey and fascinating version in the world. In 2008, CBA took the play to the stage in London's Covent Garden (the Emperor's home stadium). The world's "Swan Lake" has roughly two endings: love triumphs over evil, the prince defeats the devil, the princess returns to the world reunion ending, and the prince and the white swan's oath of loyalty to love both throw themselves into the lake and commit suicide. The Makarova version is a tragic story, but the epilogue allows the prince and the white swan to reunite in heaven, which can be said to be a great reunion in tragedy.
Stills from Makarova's version of Swan Lake
In China, british choreographer Derek Dean has staged a luxurious version of Swan Lake with 48 flocks of geese for the Shanghai Ballet.
Shanghai Ballet Deluxe Edition "Swan Lake"
There is also a version of the world-famous ballet male star Malakhov choreographed by the Liaoning Ballet, and there is also the acrobatic drama "Swan Lake" performed by the famous choreographer Zhao Ming for the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe led by Wu Zhengdan and Wei Baohua.
Stills from the acrobatic drama Swan Lake
The world's "Swan Lake" is even more innovative and wonderful. Among them, the male version of "Swan Lake" by British choreographer Matthew Bourne is the most stunning, completely subverting this ballet based on feminine women.
Germany's Hamburg Ballet Johan Neumeier's version of "Phantom Swan Lake" is a completely new interpretation and change from plot to music.
From tradition to modernity, ballet has gone through hundreds of years of history, each classic work has its historical status and the imprint of the times, people's concept of appreciation is constantly changing and improving with the development of the times, I believe that in the near future, there will be more different versions of "Swan Lake".
Keynote speaker
Xu Gang, assistant to the artistic director of the National Ballet of China, ballet master, national first-class actor, enjoys special allowances from the State Council, and is a director of the China Dancers Association.
In 1987, he entered the National Ballet of China and has starred in classic works such as "Swan Lake", "Don Quixote", "Romeo and Juliet", "Giselle" and so on. In 2003, as a member of the editorial team, he participated in the creation of a new version of Swan Lake in China. In the same year, he cooperated with Jiang Kun and Yu Long to choreograph and star in the Chinese premiere of "The Soldier's Story". In 2017, in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, he created the ballet work "Sleepless Tonight". In April 2019, he created the ballet "Yimeng Three Chapters".
After leaving the stage performance position, he participated in the business work of assisting foreign choreographers and directors. He has cooperated with Chinese and foreign choreographers to present outstanding ballet works such as "Carmen", "Onegin", "The Little Mermaid", "The Big Red Lantern Hanging High", "Peony Pavilion" and "Song of the Earth" to Chinese audiences.
Ministry of Education/Planning for the Popularization of Arts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts
Xu Gang/Wen
Wang Yuwei/Finishing