Odette/Odile vs Odette and Odile

[MAB]

I recently saw a performance of Swan Lake where the roles of Odette and Odile were danced by two different dancers and furthermore, two dancers without a shred of resemblance to each other.  It is a very long time since I last saw this and I suspect it was often because the Odette didn't have sufficient technique for act three.  In this case there was no hint of technical inadequacy as the dancer performing Odette can throw off triple fouettes like there's no tomorrow.

 

Actually there is logic in this, when Siegfried encounters Odile in the ballroom he's duped into thinking Odette has turned up in her glamorous black outfit ready to party.  It's an understandable mistake really as he's convinced he's dancing with the same girl he met at the lakeside.  On the other hand, if he meets and is overwhelmed by a different sexier woman, it compounds his guilt and he has far more wrongdoing for Odette to forgive than a simple case of mistaken identity.

 

It's been a good many years since I last saw this done, probably ENB (nee Festival ballet) in the late 60's/early 70's. perhaps other posters will have seen the dual dancers too.  Do older posters have memories to share?  Any thoughts on such a familiar ballet performed with a radical difference?

 

 

[Lisa O`Brien]

Not seen it for myself but I read in one of my numerous old ballet books that when Fonteyn made her Swan Lake debut another dancer performed Odile as it was thought she wasn't quite ready for the role. I'm sure Odile when Fonteyn was performing Odette was danced by Beryl Grey. [Who made her debut in the dual role at the age of 15].

[capybara]

Am I correct in thinking that there was a Mona Inglesby/Rowena Jackson combo long, long ago - ?International Ballet?

[MAB]

Not seen it for myself but I read in one of my numerous old ballet books that when Fonteyn made her Swan Lake debut another dancer performed Odile as it was thought she wasn't quite ready for the role. I'm sure Odile when Fonteyn was performing Odette was danced by Beryl Grey. [Who made her debut in the dual role at the age of 15].

 

At least they were both brunettes, I saw a red headed Odette and a black haired Odlie.

[alison]

I think I saw Susan Hogard as Odette and Trinidad Sevillano as Odile in a performance in the mid-80s.  Not to mention ENB splitting the roles a few times with near-debutante dancers back around the turn of the century.  All it requires is a Siegfried capable of making you believe that *he* sees the same woman in both cases - that's what's important.  It's a bit like Emperor's New Clothes syndrome

[Two Pigeons]

I think it might have been the other way round Alison.

[Melody]

It does make sense in a way to have the two roles played by two different dancers. I always thought it made nonsense of the story for the tragedy to happen because Siegfried declares his love for Odile when she's enchanted to look exactly like Odette. You can't blame the guy for choosing the woman he thought he was choosing. If Rothbart set the conditions in the first place, by enchanting Odette until a man made a free-will choice to declare his love, then he's violating his own conditions by cheating like that.

 

It would make more sense to me if there was a scenario like Rothbart killing Odette's father, marrying her mother, having a daughter with her (Odile) and then sending Odette off to be a swan maiden so that Odile, not Odette, would inherit the kingdom. Then the girls would be half-sisters and there'd be some sense in Siegfried getting the two of them confused. Otherwise you either have two girls who are so different that Siegfried had no business confusing them, or an enchantment making them look identical such that Siegfried wasn't making a free choice.

 

That part of the story always bothered me.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Melody

[Two Pigeons]

Sounds a bit like Hamlet meets Frozen but I can see where you are coming from.

[Michelle_Richer]

I came across this last Saturday at Ballet West’s performance of Swan Lake in Edinburgh. Odette was played by Natasha Watson and Odile by Uyu Hiromoto . For me the choice of these to dancers for their particular character rolls was brilliant, Odette came over as gentle and vulnerable, whilst Odile had real fire and attitude behind her expressions and movement.

 

I also remember seeing a version of Ballet Theatre UK Swan Lake about a couple of years ago, where both Odette and Odile co-existed in the same acts, however it did depart quite a lot from the traditional story.

[Colman]

 If Rothbart set the conditions in the first place, by enchanting Odette until a man made a free-will choice to declare his love, then he's violating his own conditions by cheating like that.

 

No Faerie Court would allow that carry on. I've long thought a courtroom scene with von Rothbart being dragged off to the dungeons as a finale would have been the best way to end the ballet. 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Colman

[proballetdancer]

Not seen it for myself but I read in one of my numerous old ballet books that when Fonteyn made her Swan Lake debut another dancer performed Odile as it was thought she wasn't quite ready for the role. I'm sure Odile when Fonteyn was performing Odette was danced by Beryl Grey. [Who made her debut in the dual role at the age of 15].

 

It was Ruth French who played Odile to Fonteyn's early Odettes. French was a soloist with the Diaghilev company along with De Valois and danced with the Vic Wells in its start up days. Grey came along much later, she joined the company in 1941 by which time Fonteyn was dancing the full role. Grey was eight years younger than Fonteyn, she would only have been six or seven at the time Fonteyn started dancing Swan Lake.