St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet:Swan Lake Shanghai

Time&Date：19:30:00 2-4/10/2008
Venue：Shanghai Grand Theatre - Lyric Theatre
Price：680;580;480;380;280;180

What’s unusual about the production is Rassadin’s blend of ballet and skating vocabularies: axels and salchows meld with port de bras and modified pique arabesques. This mixture reflects Rassadin’s background as a graduate of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and star dancer for the Maryinsky Theater--formerly the Kirov. His dancers are former skating champions and winners of international competitions. As is common for Russian skaters, ballet classes play an important role in their training. Once skaters are accepted into the St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet, they are required to take ballet classes regularly.

About the story
Swan Lake is generally presented in either four Acts, four Scenes or three Acts, four Scenes.
Act 1 - A magnificent park before a castle.
Swan Lake begins at a royal court. Prince Siegfried, heir to the kingdom, must declare a wife at his birthday ball. Upset that he cannot marry for love, Siegfried escapes into the forest at night. As he sees a flock of swans flying overhead, he sets off in pursuit.

Act 2 - A mountainous wild place, surrounded by forest. In the distance a lake, on the right side of which are ruins. A moonlit night.
The Valse des cygnes from Act II of the Ivanov/Petipa edition of Swan Lake.Siegfried aims his crossbow at the swans and readies himself for their landing by the lakeside. When one comes into view, however, he stops. Before him is a beautiful creature dressed in white feathers, more woman than swan. Enamoured, the two dance and Siegfried learns that the swan maiden is the princess Odette. An evil sorcerer, von Rothbart, captured her and used his magic to turn Odette into a swan by day and woman by night.

A retinue of other captured swan-maidens attend Odette in the environs of Swan Lake, which was formed by the tears of her parents when she was kidnapped by von Rothbart. Once Siegfried knows her story, he takes great pity on her and falls in love. As he begins to swear his love to her - an act that will render the sorcerer’s spell powerless - von Rothbart appears. Siegfried threatens to kill him but Odette intercedes. If von Rothbart dies before the spell is broken, it can never be undone.

Act 3 - An opulent hall in the castle.
Scene from Act 4 of Swan Lake.
Vienna Staatsoper, 2004The Prince returns to the castle to attend the ball. Von Rothbart arrives in disguise with his own daughter Odile, making her seem identical to Odette in all respects except that she wears black while Odette wears white. The prince mistakes her for Odette, dances with her, and proclaims to the court that he intends to make her his wife. Only a moment too late, Siegfried sees the real Odette and realizes his mistake. The method in which Odette appears varies: in some versions she arrives at the castle, while in other versions von Rothbart shows Siegfried a magical vision of her.

Act 4 - Same scene by the lake as in Act 2.
Realizing that the spell can never be broken, Odette and Siegfried drown themselves by leaping into the lake. This causes von Rothbart to lose his power over them, and he dies as a result.

THE ST. PETERSBURG STATE BALLET ON ICE 
 
The St. Petersburg State Ballet on Ice is one of the jewels of Russia. They have been presented throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, South America, Canada and have toured the United States 10 times since 1996! The company travels with 34 worldclass figure skaters in magnificently costumed productions including NUTCRACKER, SLEEPING BEAUTY, SWAN LAKE, CINDERELLA and ROMEO AND JULIET.....ALL ON ICE in the tradition of the renowned Kirov Ballet.