I've been watching two different productions of SWAN LAKE tonight: Nureyev's for the Paris opera Ballet and the Teatro La Scala production with Roberto Bolle, who reminds me at times of Brent Barrett. Both are peculiar and veer away from other productions: the Nureyev televised in 2004, long after Nureyev's death, was built by him as a star vehicle for himself, and I thought the Prince of 2004 had neither the looks nor the ego to pull it off. It's rather a gay slant, not as homoerotic as Matthew Bourne's, but there is this strange hangup on betrayal, with the character of the Prince's best friend doubling as the wicked sorceror who transforms straying princesses into swans. The LaScala production uses a revision of the ballet from the 1950s by a Russian choreographer named Bourmeister which goes back to the original Tchaikovsky score before it was revised and messed around with by choreographers after Tchaikovsky's death. I'm still in it, but I think it has a happy ending and in an unfortunate turn of events, Bourmeister turns the Prince's best friend into a campy little prancing court jester who gets way too much time in my book.
I still like the London Festival Ballet production choreographed by Makarova the best.
