Music Mondays - Swan Lake

This week Music Monday celebrates the upcoming production of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, performed by the Tulsa Ballet and Tulsa Symphony.

The (very) basic synopsis is this:

The story begins with a hunting journey by Prince Siegfriend, when he comes across a swan. Before he is able to shoot, the swan turns into a beautiful woman named Odette. She reveals that she is under a spell by the evil Von Rothbart, and can only be saved by a virgin prince who swears eternal fidelity to her. Siegfriend falls rapidly in love, inviting her that night to a ball at his castle where he will marry her and reverse her spell.

Tragically, the evil sorcerer disguises his daughter as Odette at the ball, causing Siegfriend to propose to the wrong woman. He races back to the lake to confess his mistake, but Odette has chosen to die in the lake to reverse the spell forever. He chooses to join her in eternity, and they live on in the afterlife as lovers forever.

This ballet is also the subject, plot, theme, or whatever for one of my favorite movies: Black Swan starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

The ballet features gorgeous, virtuosic violin solos. I scoured the internet looking for the footage from Black Swan, featuring violinist Tim Fain, but to no avail. The violin solos accompany the pas de deux with the White Swan in Act I, and with the Black Swan in Act III. 

The clips below show some of the choreography for those scenes (from 2 different productions). In the Black Swan clip (no.2), the violin solo begins at roughly 2:00 but I thought it was pretty cool to see the whole scene. 

I hope you enjoy!

If you're in Tulsa this coming weekend I strongly recommend purchasing tickets to the performance!

Friday, March 24th at 8 pm.

Saturday, March 25th at 8 pm.

Sunday, March 26th at 3 pm.

visit www.tulsaballet.org for more information.