History Theatre / SwanLake

** In Lac by Jean Christophe Maillot, the Rothbart character is portrayed by a female dancer. Eric Bruhn’s 1966 production for the National Ballet of Canada also have the Rothbart character portrayed by a female.

''Swan Lake'' (Russian: ''Лебединое Озеро, Lebedinoye Ozero'') is a ballet composed by Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky in 1875-1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, by Vladimir Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser was fashioned from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend. It tells the story of Odette, a girl turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse, and her romance with Prince Siegfried, who vows to love only her and save her from the curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet received its premiere on February 27, 1877, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as ''Le lac des cygnes'' ("The Lake of the Swans"), French being the language of the Imperial Russian court. 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, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on January 15, 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.

** In Lac by Jean Christophe Maillot, the Rothbart character is portrayed by a female dancer. Eric Bruhn’s 1967 production for the National Ballet of Canada also have the Rothbart character portrayed by a female.

* SmallReferencePools: Put it this way, if a work features a ballet and it’s ''not'' Swan Lake, it’s either the ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' or somebody is really committed to broadening the audience’s minds a bit.

** The Milwaukee Ballet version has [[spoiler: Rothbart stabbing Odette before Siegfried’s eyes. Odette mortally wounded, is carried by Siegfried to the lake where they drown themselves. Their love defeats both Rothbart and Odlie. As in as in the 1895 ballet, the apotheosis reveals the lovers reunited in death.]]

** The Milwaukee Ballet version has an ending similar to the 1895 one except that [[spoiler: Rothbart stabs Odette before the lovers drown themselves, with Siegfried carrying Odette‘s body into the water.]]

** The Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet productions have removed von Rothbart to create create an original story.

** In Lac by Jean Christophe Maillot, the Rothbart character is portrayed by a female dancer.

** Another ending has [[spoiler: Siegfried being forced by Rothbart to marry his daughter, after condemning Odette to her curse as a swan forever by mistakenly professing his love to Odile.]]

** The Boston Ballet had [[spoiler:Rothbart defeated, but his spell was unbreakable even in death, leaving Odette a swan. Siegfried followed Odette into the lake and drowned.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: In one of the ballet's most famous moments, Odile executes thirty-two fouettés while seducing the Prince.

!''Swan Lake'' has examples of:

* BalefulPolymorph: Odette and the other swan maidens. Downplayed in the original, where Odette is transformed to hide her from her stepmother.

!!!Works that reference or include scenes from ''Swan Lake'' are:
* ''Animation/AboutSidorovVova''
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' (the girls rehearse an excerpt)
* ''Film/GentlemenOfFortune'', Sad Sack reminiscences how he went to the ballet before he became criminal
* ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'', the Imagin Sieg got his image from Prince Siegfried.
* ''Kidnapping Caucasian Style''
* ''Animation/NuPogodi''
* The second game in the ''Videogame/DarkParables'' PC game series presents Odette (only identified as the Swan Lake Princess) as a PosthumousCharacter.
* ''VideoGame/GrimmsNotes'' features Odette and Odile as playable characters, and Rothbart as an antagonist.
* From the same game developers, ''Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale'' includes a BackStory in which two women play the "Swan Sisters" in a ballet which is clearly inspired by, if not a revamping of, ''Swan Lake''. The one who plays the white swan is good; the one who plays the black swan is evil.
* When Rudolf Nureyev appeared on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', they had him do ''Swine Lake''.
* In ''Film/BillyElliot'' the theme appears several times throughout the film and, in the final scene, the titular character plays a cygnet in the ballet.
* ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'', a 1990 PC adventure game, used Swan Lake for the [[PublicDomainSoundtrack entire sound track.]]
* ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' used Swan Lake as the basis for a circus show in the second season. It turns out to be a LighterAndSofter adaptation that has [[spoiler: Sora as a bright Odette [[SparedByTheAdaptation who lives through all]], Leon as a DefrostingIceKing Siegfried who manages to play out the ''Angelic Maneuvre'' with Sora, and May as an {{Anti Villain}}ous Odile who [[HeelFaceTurn ultimately is saved too]].]]
* ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' has an arc (''Such Stuff...'') which is best described as ''Swan Lake'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''{{Film/Inception}}''. As expected it's a massive MindScrew which gets a lot easier on the brain if you know the basic storyline of this ballet. It also has a villain who introduces herself as "Odile" and a dream sequence that discusses the RevisedEnding controversy.
* ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'', which revolves around the children of fairy tale characters, includes Duchess Swan, daughter of the Swan Queen.
* The stage version of ''Theatre/{{Anastasia}}'' has ''Swan Lake'' as the ballet all of the main characters go to in the second act, using the dancers actions to mirror what's going on in the real world of the show.
* Issue 185 of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic book has a story where Lisa is forced to participate in a performance of the ballet (renamed 'Goose Lake' and set in Canada due to copyright issues) along with Ralph.
* One episode of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' has the heroes do a SchoolPlay greatly resembling ''Swan Lake'' in everything but the fact that it's more of a normal play here rather than a ballet.
* In ''Literature/FlightOfTheSwan'' world-famous ballerina Niura is invited by Arthur Yager, the Governor of Puerto Rico in 1917, to do a private performance of ''The Dying Swan'' at La Fortaleza, the governor's residence.
* ''Literature/CompanyIbukiYuki'' and the subsequent [[TheMusical stage musical]] [[Theatre/CompanyTakarazukaRevue adaptation]] by the Creator/TakarazukaRevue revolves around the protagonist being assigned to a ballet company staging Swan Lake.
* The overture plays over the opening titles of the classic horror film ''Film/Dracula1931''. As an homage, the film ''Film/EdWood'' uses the overture as the {{leitmotif}} of that film's star, Creator/BelaLugosi.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' short, "Loon Lake", Shirley the Loon attends a ballet academy which is doing ''Swan Lake''. Shirley is liked by the teacher, but gets the AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment from her classmates, who are all snooty swans from Perfecto Prep. Babs gives her a pep talk when she gets discouraged, and when the swans try to sabotage Shirley during the recital, Babs sabotages them right back.
* ''Series/TheBigLeap'' is about a titular [[ShowWithinAShow reality show]] which assembles a group of amateur dancers to put on a performance of ''Swan Lake'' in the finale.
* The UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedShortFilm nominee WesternAnimation/BoxBallet centers around a ballet dancer in Swan Lake and features the 1991 crisis listed below.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', at Shogun Studio's Big Sho' Theater, Mario is forced to participate in its 3rd act, which references ''Swan Lake'' and the swan maidens being Paper Macho Shy Guys. However, when Mario accidentally drops and destroys one of the Paper Machos, the other performers retaliate by attacking him with a ''choreographed ballet number'', while a ska remix of Tchaikovsky's score plays.
* Fleurina, a new MiniBoss in ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', is clearly based on ''Swan Lake'', as she is a swan who fights using ballet moves to summon whirlwinds.

Also notable for having additional meaning for Russians because during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=August_Coup 1991 crisis]], all normal television programs were shut down and all channels showed ''Swan Lake'' instead. Notably during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, last remaining independent TV station TV Rain [[https://people.com/politics/russias-last-independent-tv-station-broadcasts-swan-lake-amid-ukraine-invasion/ aired Swan Lake as their final broadcast before shutting down]].

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/swanlake.PNG]]

''Swan Lake'' (Russian: ''Лебединое Озеро, Lebedinoye Ozero'') is a ballet composed by Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky in 1875-1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, by Vladimir Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser was fashioned from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend. It tells the story of Odette, a girl turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse, and her romance with Prince Siegfried, who vows to love only her and save her from the curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet received its premiere on February 27, 1877, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as ''Le lac des cygnes'' ("The Lake of the Swans"), French being the language of the Imperial Russian court. 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, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on January 15, 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.

Many critics have disputed the original source of the ''Swan Lake'' story. The Russian ballet patriarch Fyodor Lopukhov has called ''Swan Lake'' a "national ballet" due to the swans which are common in Russian romantic lyrics, while many of the movements of the ''corps de ballet'' originated from Slavonic ring-dances. According to Lopukhov, "both the plot of Swan Lake (despite the fact that it is based on German source), the image of the Swan, and the very idea of a faithful love are essentially Russian". Though the scenario is (as in the case of ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'') tenuously based on a story by a German author, in this case Johann Karl August Musäus' ''Der geraubte Schleier'' ("The Stolen Veil"), this provides only the general outline of the plot; the Russian folktale "Literature/TheWhiteDuck" also bears some resemblance to the story of the ballet and might have been another possible source. The contemporaries of Tchaikovsky recalled the composer taking great interest in the life story of [[UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria Ludwig II]], the Bavarian King and Count Palatine of the Rhine, who was constantly associated with the symbol of the Swan, and whom "whether consciously or not" Tchaikovsky chose as the prototype of the dream-haunted Prince Siegfried.

Alongside ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'', also composed by Tchaikovsky, it's probably the most famous ballet of all time. Any time a character in a movie or a television series goes to the ballet, it's likely to be ''Swan Lake'' by default. Even the general public, which is largely ignorant to the ballet, is familiar with at least the basics of ''Swan Lake''.

!!!Works that are based on or revolve around ''Swan Lake'' include:
* ''Swan Lake 1981'' (an anime adaptation [[http://www.discotekmedia.com/Swan-Lake-1981-Anime.htm rescued]] by Discotek Media)
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess''
* ''Film/BlackSwan''
* ''Literature/TheBlackSwan'' (a semi-novelization from Odile's point of view)
* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' (a fairytale based series which take considerable influence from ''Swan Lake'')
* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieOfSwanLake''
* ''Literature/TheSorcerersDaughter'' (a TwiceToldTale sort of sequel)

In Russian media ''Swan Lake'' is somewhat of a trope in its own right. If there is any scene involving ballet or ballet will be shown on TV it will always be ''Swan Lake''. Always. Specifically "the dance of the little swans" scene.
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!!!Works that reference or include scenes from ''Swan Lake'' are:
* ''Animation/AboutSidorovVova''
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' (the girls rehearse an excerpt)
* ''Film/GentlemenOfFortune'', Sad Sack reminiscences how he went to the ballet before he became criminal
* ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'', the Imagin Sieg got his image from Prince Siegfried.
* ''Kidnapping Caucasian Style''
* ''Animation/NuPogodi''
* The second game in the ''Videogame/DarkParables'' PC game series presents Odette (only identified as the Swan Lake Princess) as a PosthumousCharacter.
* ''VideoGame/GrimmsNotes'' features Odette and Odile as playable characters, and Rothbart as an antagonist.
* From the same game developers, ''Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale'' includes a BackStory in which two women play the "Swan Sisters" in a ballet which is clearly inspired by, if not a revamping of, ''Swan Lake''. The one who plays the white swan is good; the one who plays the black swan is evil.
* When Rudolf Nureyev appeared on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', they had him do ''Swine Lake''.
* In ''Film/BillyElliot'' the theme appears several times throughout the film and, in the final scene, the titular character plays a cygnet in the ballet.
* ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'', a 1990 PC adventure game, used Swan Lake for the [[PublicDomainSoundtrack entire sound track.]]
* ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' used Swan Lake as the basis for a circus show in the second season. It turns out to be a LighterAndSofter adaptation that has [[spoiler: Sora as a bright Odette [[SparedByTheAdaptation who lives through all]], Leon as a DefrostingIceKing Siegfried who manages to play out the ''Angelic Maneuvre'' with Sora, and May as an {{Anti Villain}}ous Odile who [[HeelFaceTurn ultimately is saved too]].]]
* ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' has an arc (''Such Stuff...'') which is best described as ''Swan Lake'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''{{Film/Inception}}''. As expected it's a massive MindScrew which gets a lot easier on the brain if you know the basic storyline of this ballet. It also has a villain who introduces herself as "Odile" and a dream sequence that discusses the RevisedEnding controversy.
* ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'', which revolves around the children of fairy tale characters, includes Duchess Swan, daughter of the Swan Queen.
* The stage version of ''Theatre/{{Anastasia}}'' has ''Swan Lake'' as the ballet all of the main characters go to in the second act, using the dancers actions to mirror what's going on in the real world of the show.
* Issue 185 of ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic book has a story where Lisa is forced to participate in a performance of the ballet (renamed 'Goose Lake' and set in Canada due to copyright issues) along with Ralph.
* One episode of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' has the heroes do a SchoolPlay greatly resembling ''Swan Lake'' in everything but the fact that it's more of a normal play here rather than a ballet.
* In ''Literature/FlightOfTheSwan'' world-famous ballerina Niura is invited by Arthur Yager, the Governor of Puerto Rico in 1917, to do a private performance of ''The Dying Swan'' at La Fortaleza, the governor's residence.
* ''Literature/CompanyIbukiYuki'' and the subsequent [[TheMusical stage musical]] [[Theatre/CompanyTakarazukaRevue adaptation]] by the Creator/TakarazukaRevue revolves around the protagonist being assigned to a ballet company staging Swan Lake.
* The overture plays over the opening titles of the classic horror film ''Film/Dracula1931''. As an homage, the film ''Film/EdWood'' uses the overture as the {{leitmotif}} of that film's star, Creator/BelaLugosi.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' short, "Loon Lake", Shirley the Loon attends a ballet academy which is doing ''Swan Lake''. Shirley is liked by the teacher, but gets the AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment from her classmates, who are all snooty swans from Perfecto Prep. Babs gives her a pep talk when she gets discouraged, and when the swans try to sabotage Shirley during the recital, Babs sabotages them right back.
* ''Series/TheBigLeap'' is about a titular [[ShowWithinAShow reality show]] which assembles a group of amateur dancers to put on a performance of ''Swan Lake'' in the finale.
* The UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedShortFilm nominee WesternAnimation/BoxBallet centers around a ballet dancer in Swan Lake and features the 1991 crisis listed below.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', at Shogun Studio's Big Sho' Theater, Mario is forced to participate in its 3rd act, which references ''Swan Lake'' and the swan maidens being Paper Macho Shy Guys. However, when Mario accidentally drops and destroys one of the Paper Machos, the other performers retaliate by attacking him with a ''choreographed ballet number'', while a ska remix of Tchaikovsky's score plays.
* Fleurina, a new MiniBoss in ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', is clearly based on ''Swan Lake'', as she is a swan who fights using ballet moves to summon whirlwinds.

Also notable for having additional meaning for Russians because during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=August_Coup 1991 crisis]], all normal television programs were shut down and all channels showed ''Swan Lake'' instead. Notably during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, last remaining independent TV station TV Rain [[https://people.com/politics/russias-last-independent-tv-station-broadcasts-swan-lake-amid-ukraine-invasion/ aired Swan Lake as their final broadcast before shutting down]].

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* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', in Shogun Studios, Mario is forced to participate in the 3rd act of the Big Sho' Theater, which references ''Swan Lake'' and its ballet dancers being Paper Macho Shy Guys. However, the other Paper Machos performers attack Mario after he accidentally drops one of the Paper Machos due to its heavy weight, all while a remix of Tchaikovsky's score plays.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', in Shogun Studios, Mario is forced to participate in the 3rd act of thr Big Sho' Theater, which references ''Swan Lake'' and its ballet dancers being Paper Macho Shy Guys. However, the other Paper Machos performers attack Mario after he accidentally drops one of the Paper Machos due to its heavy weight, all while a remix of Tchaikovsky's score plays.

** In Lac by Jean Christophe Maillot, the Rorthbart character is portrayed by a female dancer.

* KarmicDeath: Depending on the production, the lovers or Rorthbart can die this way.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The anime has Odile as a HypercompetentSidekick to her father, while Rothbart himself is a lovesick buffoon...until the ending, where he conjures up tornados, defeats Siegfried in a swordfight and forces Odette's hand in marriage.

** The original ending was also a downer. After Siegfried throws away Odette’s protective crown and her stepmother flies off with it while disguised as an owl, the lake overflows and the lovers are drowned.