RBO: Swan Lake
27 Feb 2025
- 210 minutes, with two intervals
Classical ballet’s most powerful tale of love, treachery and forgiveness returns to the Royal Opera House stage. Tchaikovsky’s sensational score combines with the evocative imagination of choreographer Liam Scarlett and designer John Macfarlane to heighten the dramatic pathos of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s quintessential ballet classic. Opening in Spring and returning in Summer, Swan Lake remains to this day one of the best-loved works in the classical ballet canon.
Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night. Von Rothbart, arbiter of Odette’s curse, tricks the Prince into declaring his love for the identical Odile and thus breaking his vow to Odette. Doomed to remain a swan forever, Odette has but one way to break the sorcerer’s spell.
Cast
ODETTE/ODILE
Yasmine Naghdi
PRINCE SIEGFRIED
Matthew Ball
VON ROTHBART
Thomas Whitehead
THE QUEEN
Christina Arestis
BENNO
Joonhyuk Jun
PRINCE SIEGFRIED’S YOUNGER SISTERS
Leticia Dias, Annette Buvoli
Creative Team
Choreography
Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Additional choreography
Liam Scarlett and Frederick Ashton
Music
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Production
Liam Scarlett
Designer
John Macfarlane
Lighting Designer
David Finn
Staging
Gary Avis, Laura Morera, and Samantha Raine
Artistic Supervisor
Laura Morera