Swan Lake  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Swan Lake is a ballet, first presented in four acts, Opus 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The scenario was worked out by Vladimir Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser, and the music was composed 1875-1876. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet received its premiere in 1877 at the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, staged for the Imperial Ballet in 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by Riccardo Drigo.