Marius Petipa

At length, only a third of the original remained, and not the best.

The ballet dropped out of the Moscow repertory, and it was not until 1894 that the enterprising Marius Petipa wrote to Moscow for the full score and produced Swan Lake with brilliant success at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1895.

It has since remained a repertory staple, both the current Ballets Russes and the Ballet Theatre having staged it successfully.

Pavlova, Karsavina, and Markova, among others, have interpreted the heroine Odette, and Prince Siegfried has been embodied by Nijinsky, Lifar, Mordkin, and Dolan.

Yet an earlier concert performance of the music had drawn plaudits from both public and press.

The ballet's failure, however, was easy to explain.

The producer, Marius Petipa, fell ill and the work of staging the new ballet was entrusted to a man of inadequate skill and experience.

Then the audience found it hard to thrill to the spectacle of children dashing coyly about in the first act.

The ballet known as Swan Lake stands as a primary example of classical dance.

Using a musical score composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between achtzehnhundertfünfundsiebzig and achtzehnhundertsechsundsiebzig, the ballet achieved its most famous form through the choreography of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in achtzehnhundertfünfundneunzig.

Its first performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg with the Imperial Ballet.

The story features a dual lead role where a white swan and a black swan represent the opposing forces of good and evil.

Mm-hmm.

So that same year, a young choreographer named Marius Petipa, the man who would go on to create Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty-

As we said before-

... staged a little ballet

...

Marius...

Yeah.

Marius Petipa choreographed it.

Petipa.

He restages it two years later and makes it even grander.