Russian Ballet Theatre: "Swan Lake" at the Adler Theatre -- March 1.
Tuesday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Lauded by the San Diego Reader for delivering “a heightened sense of reality, folk tales, and folk dances transmogrified into sinuous spectacle,” the internationally esteemed dance troupe Russian Ballet Theatre brings its production of Swan Lake to Davenport's Adler Theatre on March 1, this innovative presentation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's classic ballet described by the Times-Advocate as “probably as good as it gets.”
Having originally premiered in Moscow in 1877, Swan Lake is Nutcracker composer Tchaikovsky's timeless love story that mixes magic, tragedy, and romance into four acts. Its central figures are Prince Siegfried and a lovely swan princess named Odette who, while under the spell of a sorcerer, spends her days as a swan swimming on a lake of tears and her nights in her beautiful human form. The couple quickly falls in love, but as in most fairy tales, a Happily Ever After doesn't come easily, and the sorcerer has more tricks to play. His machinations bring the sorcerer's daughter into the picture, leading to confusion, romantic peril, and ultimate forgiveness, with Swan Lake, since its debut, emerging as one of the most frequently produced dance pieces of all time, as well as one of the beloved by audiences of all ages.
A company established to present people with the opportunity to experience the breathtaking beauty of classical Russian ballet in their hometowns, Russian Ballet Theatre was founded in 2015, and its team shares a passion for enriching Russian-ballet traditions through brilliant and critically acclaimed new productions of the world classics. In additional to their international travels, the troupe has had the honor of successfully performing for large audiences across the United States in such cities as New York, Minneapolis, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, and Baltimore to name a few, and the productions' casts consist of professional dancers with years of training at most pristine Russian theaters. Swan Lake' current touring presentation was helmed by the company's chief choreographer Nadezhda Kalinina, whose numerous works have been performed in theatres of Russia and other countries, including the Mariinsky Theater, the St. Petersburg Chamber Opera Company, and the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Baiseitova. Her ballet's hand-painted sets and more than 150 hand-sewn costumes were created by young, accomplished designer Sergei Novikov (Mariinsky Theatre, Omsk State Music Theatre,) in the tradition of the great masters, and Kalinina's own work found her lovingly retouching the oldest recorded St. Petersburg version of the Tchaikovsky's ballet.
Russian Ballet Theatre's touring production of Swan Lake comes to Davenport on March 1, admission to the 7:30 p.m. performance is $39-89, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting AdlerTheatre.com.
