The Moscow Festival Ballet performs “Swan Lake,” a full-length ballet in four acts with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
This marks the last chance to see Russian ballet at the theater for awhile. “Due to the upcoming renovation at ABT, we won’t be presenting any Russian ballet until after we re-open in 2020,” says Programming and Marketing Director Jody Grant.
“Swan Lake” tells the story of Prince Siegfried, who sees an amazing swan while hunting. As he takes aim to shoot, the swan turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, who tells the prince she is a princess under the spell of an evil sorcerer. During the day she must be a swan and swim in a lake of tears. At night she is allowed to be human again.
The two fall in love and hope to break the spell. However, the evil sorcerer has other plans and through a spell placed on Siegfried at a party, the prince accidentally proposes to another woman, believing her to be Odette.
Feeling doomed, Odette throws herself into the lake, and Siegfried throws himself into the lake with her. In an incredibly touching moment, the two are transformed into lovers in the afterlife.
The Moscow Festival Ballet was founded in 1989 when legendary principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet, Sergei Radchenko, sought to realize his vision of a company that would bring together the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies in an independent new company within the framework of Russian classic ballet. Helmed by Radchenko as artistic director, the company of over 50 dancers brings artistry, sophistication and resplendent costumes to the stage.
Tickets, $49, $44, $25 and $25 for students with valid I.D., are available at the Alberta Bair Theater Box Office on the corner of 3rd Ave N and N Broadway, by phone at 406-256-6052 or online at www.albertabairtheater.org.