Choreography
John Neumeier
Choreography of The Second Remembrance after Lev Ivanov
Reconstructed with the collaboration of Alexandra Danilova
Choreography of the Grand Pas de deux of The Third Remembrance after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov

Scenery and costumes: Jürgen Rose

Music
Tchaikovsky

Performers
King : Jiri Bubenicek
Princess Natalia : Elizabeth Loscavio
Odette : Anna Polikarpova
Man in the shadow : Carsten Jung
Princess Claire: Silvia Azzoni
Count Alexander : Alexandre Riabko
Prince Siegfried : Jacek Bres
Queen Mother : Anna Grabka
Prince Leopold : Lloyd Riggins
Carpenter : Peter Dingle

Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
Vello Pähn (conductor)

This is a Swan Lake unlike any other you've seen - but rest assured, this is all Tchaikovsky 's original music, along with beautiful classical dancing, in John Neumeier's setting.

Only the story changes: this version, first performed in 1976, evokes the life of "Mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria - aesthete, dreamer, Wagner financier, and builder of the bizarre fairytale castle that looks Disneyesque precisely because Disney imitated it. It also refers to episodes in the life of Tchaikovsky himself.

In 1877, the year in which Swan Lake was first performed, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, a music student at the Moscow Conservatory who had written to the composer declaring her love for him. However, the marriage was unhappy from the outset, and the couple soon separated. Tchaikovsky, a homosexual convinced his sexuality was a divine curse, had tried to prove he wasn't gay and only succeeded in demonstrating the reverse.

Swan Lake was also unsuccessful: it was badly received at its opening. Hurt by the ballet's reception, Tchaikovsky turned his back on ballet music for 13 years. The production we recognise today was actually premiered after his death and only then went on to become one of the most popular ballet productions of all.