Worldbuilding Exchange

Swan Lake is, after the Nutcracker, perhaps the most basic ballet there is. It's considered the peak of classical ballet (note: in ballet, the romantic era comes before the classic, so that while Tchaikovsky is a romantic composer, he is a composer of classic ballets), but I think the part of the reason for its longevity is that it has multiple ending variants, broadly divided into "villain wins" and "lovers prevail".

Short synopsis:

including the prologue!

[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.

The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.

[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.

[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.

[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.

[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.

The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...

Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.

Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.

Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.