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The Season > Operas and Ballets > Swan lake
• Cast | • Timetable | Running time | • Synopsys | |
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| Teatro Massimo Orchestra and Ballet Production by Fondazione Teatro San Carlo di Napoli |
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Main Performers
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Timetable
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Running time Two hours and 10 minutes, including a 20 minutes interval |
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| Synopsis Prologue, Act I and Act II Prince Siegfried’s twentieth birthday is being celebrated. The Queen, Siegfried’s mother, enters accompanied by dames, and exhorts the guests to rejoice with her, for the Prince is soon to be married and shall choose his betrothed from the girls whom she herself has invited to the ball. Pensively, the Prince dreams of an ideal love, and for this reason the he seems deaf to reason. His spirit seeks to escape the reality that surrounds him and to take refuge in dreams. The Prince, absorbed in thought, sees a white swan-woman appear, her head adorned with a crown. Bewitched, Siegfried approaches her. The swan confides to him that she is a princess named Odette, and that she has been turned into a swan, with other maidens who, like her, are the victims of a spell cast by the wicked Rasputin. The spell can only be broken if a man swears internal love to her. Struck by this confession, Siegfried promises to rescue Odette. Odette and Siegfried exchange a pledge of love. Odette’s girl-swans shield the two lovers with their bodies against attack from Rasputin. Siegfried invites Odette to the ball which his mother, the Queen, is giving the following day and during which he must choose his bride. He insists that Odette attend the ball because he wishes to ask her hand in marriage. Odette replies that this will be impossible, due to her condition as a swan. Siegfried then declares that he will not marry, and swears eternal love to Odette. As dawn rises the apparitions fade away. The Prince is perturbed. Act III At the palace the master of ceremonies starts the celebrations. The Queen accompanies Prince Siegfried, who seems however to care about nothing, as if estranged from the world around him. After the divertissernent of folk dances from different countries, the young girls aspiring to marry the Prince are presented to him. He however rejects them all, until a mysterious creature who looks incredibly like Odette enters the palace. As if rapt and subdued by this image, Siegfried has eyes only for her, for this creature in whom he believes he has glimpsed his beloved white swan. But the swan that resembles her so closely is but Odile, whom Rasputin has transformed by magic into Odette’s double. And the Prince, blinded by love, asks her hand in marriage. Rasputin triumphs. Siegfried is about to perjure himself. Odette can no longer be saved. Act IV Siegfried, now increasingly aware of his error, is in deep despair. The vision of the lake returns. At the centre among the swans Odette weeps over her lost love. All hope is extinguished, even though Siegfried’s betrayal has been involuntary. Consumed with remorse, the Prince beseeches Odette to forgive him, but too late. Rasputin removes Odette from the Prince for ever. His dream ends. |
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Photographs (Click on any photograph you wish to see enlarged)
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