The new ending also needs more pop. As in 2004, Siegfried, after he’s made it up with Odette, hoists her aloft and charges at Rothbart, who cowers at the depth of their love and falls lifeless. In 2004, Siegfried and Odette then threw themselves into the lake; the tower crumbled and the spell broke. That didn’t make much sense — you’d have thought the spell would die with Rothbart. Now, Siegfried and Odette hold each other, the swans return, Siegfried and Odette retreat upstage so the swans can display themselves — and that’s it. The concept — that Odette’s love can save Siegfried rather than the other way around — is powerful, but it needs more visual expression as the music surges from B minor into B major: tower crumbling; dawn-like lighting; Siegfried and Odette dancing out their joy; swans acting less like swans and more like girls. I suppose it’s a measure of Swan Lake’s size and scope that, more than a century after its birth, it’s still taking shape.
Related:
Stairway to Paradise?, Dark victory, The reign in Spain, More 
- Stairway to Paradise?
It’s a mark of Mikko Nissinen’s ambitions for Boston Ballet that last night’s benefit Gala Performance at the Wang Theatre ended with such a défilé .
- Dark victory
It’s a good pairing: together, Serenade and La Sylphide write an essay on doomed love
- The reign in Spain
If only the company could return to the local appreciation its international achievement deserves.
- Slideshow: Boston Ballet's Jewels
Photos from George Balanchine's Jewels, performed by the Boston Ballet.
- Smaller, bigger, better
Is Boston in the midst of a ballet boom? You could certainly believe that if you attended Boston Ballet’s fourth annual season-opening gala last Saturday.
- Impossible dream?
Don Quixote has been a watershed work for Boston Ballet.
- Mastering the masterpieces
It’s not exactly a trip down Memory Lane, but this weekend Boston Ballet is revisiting some pieces and choreographers it hasn’t performed in the Mikko Nissinen era.
- Setting the Wang on fire
Burning down the house” is a metaphor, but at the Wang Theatre last weekend, the Boston Fire Department was on hand to ensure that it remained one.
- State of the art
Maybe it’s the economy, but Boston Ballet’s third-annual season-opening gala was a sober evening, without the orchestral overture that graced the first two affairs.
- Love and death
“Classic Balanchine” as opposed to . . . “Jazz Balanchine”? “Porno Balanchine”? What was the alternative?
- Photos: Boston Ballet's World Passions
Photos of the Boston Ballet's "World Passions" collection, including Jorma Elo's Carmen ; Helen Pickett's Tsukiyo ; Viktor Plotnikov's Rhyme ; and Marius Petipa's Paquita.
- Less
Topics:
Dance
, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Erica Cornejo, More
, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Erica Cornejo, Jaime Diaz, Sarah Wroth, Peter Cazalet, Antonina Milyukova, Alicia Alonso, Mariinsky Ballet Company, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Less
