Swan Lake

The Perm Opera Ballet
in collaboration with
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens

February 22 - 26, 2017

The Montreal was presented with a unique opportunity to host the most iconic classical ballet Swan Lake, produced by Russia's The Perm Opera Ballet company. Only 5 days are allotted to this event, staged to sold out audiences at the Place des Arts' largest hall Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.

One can truly refer to the Swan Lake's visit to Montreal as "From Russia with Love". It is a romantic and enchanting love story, unfortunately, with tragic consequences. Yet the very final scene of this version choreographed by Natalia Makarova, the great Russian prima-ballerina and choreographer, offers a true understanding that regardless of circumstances, Love is always a winner at the end.

This ballet is a candy to the eye. Those of you who will have a chance to see it, should consider yourselves lucky. It is very seldom that one gets a chance to see a traditional, classical ballet. In the present dance world, the modern and mixed dance styles are in vogue. Yet the precisely executed ballet steps and figurations offer the images of grace and elegance that no other dance types could offer. The classical ballet is the superb vehicle to express the most tender and highest aspirations of the human soul, and to contrast them to the dark forces in our collective reality and imagination. 

The Russian ballet school produces dancers that surprise with their excellence of technique, physical performance and stamina, and most of all, with the overall artistic effect they deliver. They not only create visual, sculptural shapes and forms with their bodies, gestures, and the fluidity of their movements, but also conjure an emotional impact. They are outstanding masters in projecting greatest emotions that far surpass their physical presence and their dance movements on the stage.

The choreography of this ballet is superb, the stage design enchanting, the rhythms and the flow of the dance and of the story line are precisely timed, and the gamut of colour combinations very expressive. The swan's white skirts are so brightly white that they stand out as if floating through the space all on their own, as if no effort at all was exerted by the ballerinas. It is in these type of details that the mastery of the performance reveals itself, and one becomes grateful for having had a chance of seeing it.

The classical ballet is never only a visual construct or a physical dance performance, the music is equally of crucial importance. The Swan Lake is most loved also as the timeless musical masterpiece of Russian great composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His musical score in Montreal is performed by the Les Grands Ballets Orchestra, conducted by Valery Platonov, a winner of the Golden Mask national prize of Russia.

The Swan Lake, the time-defying story of romance and tragedy, should be seen by everybody at least once in the lifetime. It offers a unique peek into the creative artistic heritage we all collectively posses, and illuminates the aspirations and desires the humanity has for the artistic and emotional truth, beauty, grace, and the free expression of love and individual's choices.

The Swan Lake ballet was created in 1876. The version presented in Montreal premièred in Perm in 2005.

Video clip of Swan Lake, The Perm Opera Ballet