The Princess informs her son Siegfried that at tomorrow’s ball he is to choose a fiancée from among the girls invited to the castle. While the young people disport themselves on the lawn, the jester amuses the guests with his antics and girls dance with their companions. The garden of the Sovereign Princess’s castle. Swan Lake is, first and foremost, a ballet for the heart. Reviews from around the world have called the performance “bright and flowing”, “respectful to every detail”, and have noted the work’s “inexplicable charm”, the elegance of the choreography, and the “tension, emotional fluctuations, and uniqueness of every swan in the apparently uniform flock.” But you do not need to be a seasoned ballet connoisseur to appreciate the subtle nuances of this production. A re-creation of the Bolshoi Theatre’s original production which was Soviet ballet’s claim to international fame for many years, the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s Swan Lake has also already received considerable critical acclaim. The Mikhailovsky Theatre offers a unique version of the ballet, which today cannot be seen anywhere else. The combination of brilliant music and choreography creates a special kind of magic what the great 20th century choreographer George Balanchine had in mind when he famously said, “One should call every ballet Swan Lake because then people would come.” Swan Lake is the ballet which embodies the soul of Russian art. Premiere at the Mikhailovsky Theatre: 15 September 2009