Swan Lake

Tonight we went to see the St Petersburg Conservatoire perform Swan Lake. This was excellent. They were all young dancers, so it was not perfect but it was such a fantastic experience to see Swan Lake in St Petersburg!!


We also learned something new: the traditional ballet with the dying swan was the original ending, but Stalin didn't like this ending as he felt the Russian people needed to leave the theatre feeling upbeat, so he demanded it be changed. Since then, a Soviet version of Swan Lake has been performed, where the swan doesn't die and they live happily ever after. And that's the version we got! So we've now seen both endings. We also discovered that when Gorbachov was ousted, the Russian TV channels played nothing but Swan Lake for 3 days to try and boost the public mood. Weirdos.

The lighting and costumes were everything you'd expect from a Russian ballet. What was disappointing was the rude Spanish tourists also in the theatre using flash photography during the performance and one was even stood videoing it!! The dancers must have been dazzled.

Across the road from our theatre, in the same square, was the Kirov (Marinsky) but they are currently touring.


We have another early one tomorrow so now we've had our supper we're calling it a day.

Dosvidanya for now (we think that's how you spell it!)

-- Posted From My iPhone