Debuts in Swan Lake

Von Rothbart is one of the key roles in Swan Lake. In the version of the ballet performed at the Mariinsky Theatre today the evil magician who entices Siegfried using his daughter Odile’s beauty dies in the finale. In this version of the story with a “happy end” von Rothbart is the embodiment of all the evils of the world that must be overcome. Yuri Smekalov and Yevgeny Deryabin will have to portray just such a “cunning tempter”, helpless in the face of the great power of love. Apropos, there was no such happy end in the original version of the libretto: Siegfried, having broken his vow of fidelity, died together with his beloved Odette while von Rothbart, the personification of fate who deserved to be punished, soared over the lake in which the protagonists drowned. Such a finale is preferred by many contemporary choreographers of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. Throughout its rich history, Swan Lake has seen myriad portrayals of the character. For example, in the 1933 production by Agrippina Vaganova which strived to depict the conflict from a social point of view every fairytale element was eliminated from the plot. Von Rothbart was a real character, a landowner who had become poor and who – wishing to improve his own material situation – intended to marry off his daughter Odile to Prince Siegfried. On the other hand, in his 1945 version Fyodor Lopukhov aimed to increase the element of fantasy and in Act II made the evil sorcerer von Rothbart mimic Siegfried’s movements, continuously following him in the shadows and appearing as the mysterious host at a masked ball in the next act. The role of the Evil Genius (von Rothbart) in Yuri Grigorovich’s first version of the ballet (1969) was also intense in terms of dance. In that version the Evil Genius was Siegfried’s double, reflecting all the negative aspects of the Prince’s soul. But however choreographers envision the character, the task of the dancer remains the same – to make it convincing and believable.