The status of Swan Lake has changed. Once it was first among equals in the traditional three-acter stakes, combining Tchaikovsky’s score with a heartbreaking story of sacrifice and love and some magnificent choreography by the 19th-century master Marius Petipa and his protege Lev Ivanov.
Now it’s seen as the brand ballet, an automatic seat-filler, and hence coffers-filler. This explains its presence in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet until 28 June, with 11 different casts taking their turns as sad Prince Siegfried, his bewitched love Odette and her evil double Odile. Yet I wonder what people seeing the ballet for the first time make of the cumbersome production that the company is currently dancing.
