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Le Lac des Cygnes et ses Maléfices
(Swan Lake and Its Evil Spells)A ballet by Roland Petit in two acts and four scenes, freely inspired on the ballet Swan Lake of Marius Petipa. Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with adaptations by Edgar Cosma. Choreography by Roland Petit. Costumes by Hervé Léger. Sets by Bernard Michel. First presented by the Ballet National de Marseille March 23-28, 1998, at the Amphithéâtre du Centre des Congrès, Parc Chanot, Marseille, with Altynai Asylmuratova, Massimo Murru and Lienz Chang in principal roles.
First Cast
Second Cast
RoleAltynai Asylmuratova Maria Gimenez Elle Massimo Murru Jan Broeckx Le Jeune Homme Lienz Chang Juliano Peparini L’Homme en Noir
Synopsis
by Roland Petit, from the Program Book
(Translated by Marc Haegeman)Act One, Scene 1
One evening the Man in Black gives a party. He is waiting for his guests to arrive.
She is in love with the Young Man, looking through the window mesmerized by the swans on the lake.
The Man in Black is in love with Her: he desires her. She rejects him.
The Man in Black provokes the Young Man, his rival. The quarrel comes to a bad end, he spits his evil spells into the face of the Young Man, who, staggered, magnetized and electrified, transforms into a swan, flying away to join his kind.
Act One, Scene 2
The swans spread out all over the stage.
The Young Man turned into a Swan is amongst them. She wanders along the lake, looking for the one she loves.
At last, She finds him. She seduces him, he is hers.
The swans disappear. She remains alone, abandoned.
The Man in Black finds her fainted. He carries her away.
Act Two, Scene 1
The Man in Black receives his friends to celebrate Her, the woman he loves.
But She, locked in the castle, is bored and under the influence of the nightmare which occupies her mind.
Not to be able to join the one she loves, out there on the lake, is a constant torture.
None the less, everybody is enjoying himself. Even She sometimes joins in the engaging dances, she liked so much before.
Act Two, Scene 2
At last the grand finale is about to begin.
The Man in Black, to complete his evil spells, transforms himself in front of Her, taking the guise of the one she loves, though not as a white swan, but as a black swan.
The black swan invites Her to dance with him. She hesitates, but eventually throws herself, accompanied by black swans invading the palace, in a sarabande, that leaves her panting, then revolted.
She wants the one she loves. He is out there on the lake. She goes to join him, like Ophelia, to disappear in a somber and icy whirlpool.
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