Sir Peter Wright has forged a reputation for producing thoughtful interpretations of nineteenth century classic ballets and, in 1981, he turned his attention to Swan Lake, collaborating with principal dancer Galina Samsova, who took the role of Odette/Odile at the world premiere. They augmented the Petipa-Ivanov choreography with Wright’s amendments and brought in aspects of the ballet that Samsova had learned when dancing in Kyiv.
The freshness of this Swan Lake is especially evident in the ‘Petipa’ acts (1 and 3) and it begins with a brief prologue of the funeral procession for the late king, an innovation that I’ve never seen in any other production, where audiences are just left to assume that the queen who rules the roost is a widow! Another interesting change is to interrupt the pas de trois with a long and mournful soliloquy for the prince, illustrative of his precarious state of mind.
In the third act, much more attention is devoted to the princesses presented to the prince as potential brides. Their selection is forewarned by portraits in three heavily gilded books presented to Prince Siegfried at his birthday celebrations. There are only three princesses, each accompanied by a minder in resplendent costumes, and each having the opportunity to dance a solo for the prince, following a national dance by their entourage. It makes for a better structure and gives more than the usual cursory focus on Siegfried’s potential brides.
The company is clearly in very fine form, and, on this opening night, there were several instances of doubling and even trebling up on roles. Lucy Waine is a very distinctive dancer, and she morphed from being one of the prince’s friends in Act 1, to one of the two swan maidens in Act 2 (alongside Yuki Sugiura) and finally the seductive Hungarian princess of Act 3. Rosanna Ely and Katherine Ochoa were similarly busy, ending respectively as the Polish and Italian princesses. Incidentally, a touch of humour was introduced to the haughty and disdainful way in which these potential brides regarded each other.
The honour of opening the BRB season went to Momoko Hirata and Mathias Dingman. Hirata’s Odette was a masterclass of explaining in movement and mime the fragility of the princess trapped as a swan during the day and only able to take human form between the hours of midnight and dawn. Her Odile managed to convey enough similarity of movement to convince Siegfried that she is Odette but also bringing the nastiness of one who has condemned Odette to a lifetime of enchantment by her deceit.
As Siegfried, Dingman exemplified the prince in torment, being forced to become king and take a wife against his will but nonetheless retaining an elegant nobility in his dancing. Both dancers were at ease with the many technical challenges, and their partnering was of the highest order. This production includes a longer-than-usual reconciliation pas de deux for the principals in the final act, which begins with an abundance of dry ice from within which the corps of swans emerges spectacularly.
Phillip Prowse has designed the most extraordinary costumes. Most of the cloaks – some of which look like the performers are wearing carpets on their arms – are too heavy to hang (and one alone apparently weighs six stone)! The Hungarian princess’s uncredited minder wore an enormous helmet that seemed so heavy he could hardly hold his head up.
As Rothbart, Jonathan Payn was suitably weaselly as the mysterious ambassador who brings Odile to the betrothal party but in the lakeside acts his movement seemed laboured and distinctly unthreatening, as if he were a comedy villain in a 1920’s silent movie, and I suspect that this had much to do with the elaborate costume and headdress that he wore (I wondered if it affected his vision).
Daria Stanciulescu was a gorgeous queen in mourning, her elaborate black costumes conveying the image of the queen in Disney’s Snow White. Riku Ito was an enthusiastic Benno, Siegfried’s best friend, and he performed the pas de trois, together with Ochoa and Reina Fuchigami, sandwiched around the prince’s yearning soliloquy. Whether this interruption helped, by giving the trio a rest, or not, the pas de trois was outstanding. The synergy of its final movement was created by bringing the prince into a pas de quatre.
Kudos to the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, which has had a busy summer playing for the Georgian National Ballet and others, and under the direction of Paul Murphy performed Tchaikovsky’s luscious and symphonic score superbly (including some unusual additions).
Now 45 years old, the Wright/Samsova production is faithful to all the key elements of the traditional ballet but with plenty of embellishments that give the BRB Swan Lake its own uniqueness. This opening night of the company’s 2026/27 season had a surprise ending as Wright – just two months shy of his 100th birthday – enthusiastically took the final curtain call.
