Black Swans, fouettés and costumes in Swan Lake

[Sebastian]

More from the costume historian (via BalletAlert):-

 

>>ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA recording says the following: "Today, we usually see Odile dressed in a black version of Odette's costume; but this is a recent innovation. The original Odile was dressed in a brightly colored, festive costume, and she won the prince by her beauty and charm, rather than by virtue of any magic spell. Diaghilev's production featured this brightly colored attire, and Markova wore a yellow tutu topped with gold brocade and trimmed with pearls when she first danced it with the Vic-Wells."
 

>>In BALLET (magazine) vol. 3 no. 4, 1947, in a review of International Ballet's SWAN LAKE - CWBeaumont writes of Odile: "Miss Gollner wears a dark green tutu decorated with pale green sequins which gives her a sinister snake-like appearance." In vol. 5. no. 2 of the same magazine in the same year, the same author, in an articles about some observations on the role of Odile, notes: "...the present Odile wears black and gold, but i have seen skirts of other colors, such as orange, and mauve."

 

>>My hunch is that the…photocard, identified in handwriting on the back as having been bought in moscow in 1930, shows a Soviet couple, no later than 1930, as Siegfreid and Odile. Whatever color her tutu, it's obviously not black.

 

 

[Sebastian]

Some quotes re “that dress”:-

 

>>In a review of Kshesinskaya in Swan Lake in 1901, it states: "The ballerina was very effective in the second act, in her elegant black dress, which went so well on her, and danced the famous pas d’action with aplomb and great artistic finish.”

 

(From Novosti i birzhevaya gazeta (6 Apr. 1901), p. 3. via Wiley, Roland John, The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov)

 

>>Maya Plisetskaya notes this: "The division into the “black” and “white” adagios came to the Bolshoi from the West. The foreign ballet troupes that began visiting at the end of the 1950s reinterpreted Odile, the daughter of the evil genius Rothbart, as the black swan. This division took root."

(From I, Maya Plisekskaya by Maya Plisetskaya)

 

>>Cyril W. Beaumont wrote: "Odile, we are told, is the daughter of Rothbart the magician, but since he makes her assume the likeness of Odette, the expression 'daughter' is more a convenient figure of speech for what is clearly a familiar spirit. That such was the authors' intention is corroborated by the fact that Skalkovsky, describing a performance of Swan Lake at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1899, records that immediately after Siegfried asked Odile - believing her to be Odette - for her hand in marriage, the great hall went dark and Odile changed into an owl."

(From The Ballet Called Swan Lake by Cyril W. Beaumont)

[Roberta]

Thanks for all this @Sebastian I think it fair to say the plot thickens! 

 

I wish I could find the early photo of Markova in her tutu, as Odile, I had it bookmarked at one point.  I suspect it was the yellow / gold one. It was certainly the ballroom scene. 

[Roberta]

48 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

Cyril Beaumont, in the 1938 edition of Complete Book of.Ballets, refers to Rotbart “dressed to represent a black swan, and his daughter Odile”

 

A few stunning photos here of Von Rothbart / Rothbart/ Rotbart etc over the eras! Red beard. Hmmm. The mark of the villain! 

 

https://www.alastairmacaulay.com/blog/spjs2ilspbnnh0k5ozg3fbfco1dc73

 

 

[Tango Dancer]

4 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

A few stunning photos here of Von Rothbart / Rothbart/ Rotbart etc over the eras! Red beard. Hmmm. The mark of the villain! 

 

https://www.alastairmacaulay.com/blog/spjs2ilspbnnh0k5ozg3fbfco1dc73

 

 

 

Interesting.  I really like the Royal Ballet's costuming that they use, both the evil bird design (Gary Avis describes it as an owl but I've always thought it was a vulture) and the court design with the long black coat and long hair (which looks really good on both Gary and Benn Gartside in my view).  

[Roberta]

2 hours ago, Sebastian said:

The contemporary 1890s sketches - so says a distinguished costume historian from New York - show “a kind of aurora borealis tutu designed with multicolored rays that fan over the bodice from the waist and that shoot from the waist to the tutu's edge”. 

 

Aha! That one is pictured here (as also linked to by @Amelia above) The background is black under the rainbows.

 

(Also... black swans, white swans and PINK swans at the lake?  Thankfully the latter didn't make the stage.) 

 

Edited to add: it maybe something in the Google translation, but Odette as a WEREWOLF? 

 

Evgeny Ponomarev. Costume sketches for Odile and Rothbart

 

https://www.mariinsky.ru/about/exhibitions/petipa200/swan_lake/

 

 

 

Edited March 22 by Roberta

[San Perregrino]

4 hours ago, Roberta said:

So... the question remains as to when Odile turned into a 'Black Swan'. 

Might it also have something to do with the cost and availability of a dependable black dye when the production was first staged? I’m thinking of the recent discussion of Manon’s black dress signifying expensive because black was such a costly dye. 

[Roberta]

4 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

Might it also have something to do with the cost and availability of a dependable black dye when the production was first staged? I’m thinking of the recent discussion of Manon’s black dress signifying expensive because black was such a costly dye. 

 

I think by the end of the 19th century that wasn't such a consideration.  Chemical dyes were in use. 

 

The puzzle is why Odile needs to be any swan at all, when she is a woman (or possibly an apparition of one) and when the black costume became the norm and the character and PDD began to be known as 'the Black Swan'. I can see the lake scene swans as being both black and white as appropriate but Odile isn't a swan / swan maiden. 

 

Anyhow it's clear that many colours of tutu have been worn over the years to dazzle in that ballroom scene!

 

 

[Sebastian]

3 hours ago, Roberta said:

 

 
Many thanks @Roberta Can I ask for the source of this paragraph? 

[zxDaveM]

Surely Odile has to be a bit swanlike, as part of the deception to convince hapless Siegfried she is in fact Odette (in disguise). She even mimics a few 'swan' steps of Odette's solo in act 2

[Roberta]

6 hours ago, Sebastian said:

Can I ask for the source of this paragraph? 

 

It's here, translated with Google translate (and the photo of Trefilova as 'a black swan' raises further questions, she joined the company in 1895 I believe)   https://www.mariinsky.ru/about/exhibitions/petipa200/swan_lake/

 

 

[Roberta]

12 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

Surely Odile has to be a bit swanlike, as part of the deception to convince hapless Siegfried she is in fact Odette (in disguise). She even mimics a few 'swan' steps of Odette's solo in act 2

 

Possibly, though I do wonder if over the years when Odile seems to have morphed more fully into being THE 'Black Swan' tutu and all if these haven't become more exaggerated?

 

I have read that in early productions (I'll look for the ref again) it was the 'beauty and charm' deployed by Odile which won over Seigfried, which really does make more sense than being a full out vamp. If it was gentle Odette he fell for by the lake, surely he'd have been rather confused by the man eater Odile unveiled at the party? 

 

[bridiem]

38 minutes ago, Roberta said:

Possibly, though I do wonder if over the years when Odile seems to have morphed more fully into being THE 'Black Swan' tutu and all if these haven't become more exaggerated?

 

I have read that in early productions (I'll look for the ref again) it was the 'beauty and charm' deployed by Odile which won over Seigfried, which really does make more sense than being a full out vamp. If it was gentle Odette he fell for by the lake, surely he'd have been rather confused by the man eater Odile unveiled at the party?

 

Well he'd already fallen in love with Odette, so (from the evil point of view) the more Odile looks like her the better. He's being tricked, not just being seduced by another woman.

[Roberta]

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

(and the photo of Trefilova as 'a black swan' raises further questions, she joined the company in 1895 I believe)

 

  Apologies I'm a year out, 1894. Theatre intrigue saw her relegated to the back row of the corps for two years.  She became a soloist in 1901,  principal 1906, resigned in 1910. 

[Roberta]

27 minutes ago, bridiem said:

Well he'd already fallen in love with Odette, so (from the evil point of view) the more Odile looks like her the better. He's being tricked, not just being seduced by another woman.

 

In which case, a white tutu and feathered headdress not a many coloured tutu may have been more appropriate!

 

As quoted by @Sebastian above and pictured in the link from the Mariinsky   >>ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA recording says the following: "Today, we usually see Odile dressed in a black version of Odette's costume; but this is a recent innovation. The original Odile was dressed in a brightly colored, festive costume, and she won the prince by her beauty and charm, rather than by virtue of any magic spell. Diaghilev's production featured this brightly colored attire, and Markova wore a yellow tutu topped with gold brocade and trimmed with pearls when she first danced it with the Vic-Wells."

 

Edited March 23 by Roberta

[bridiem]

17 minutes ago, Roberta said:

In which case, a white tutu and feathered headdress not a many coloured tutu may have been more appropriate!

 

As quoted by @Sebastian above and pictured in the link from the Mariinsky   >>ART OF THE PRIMA BALLERINA recording says the following: "Today, we usually see Odile dressed in a black version of Odette's costume; but this is a recent innovation. The original Odile was dressed in a brightly colored, festive costume, and she won the prince by her beauty and charm, rather than by virtue of any magic spell. Diaghilev's production featured this brightly colored attire, and Markova wore a yellow tutu topped with gold brocade and trimmed with pearls when she first danced it with the Vic-Wells."

 

 

But Odile's 'beauty and charm' are a trick used by her and Rothbart to lure him away from Odette - they're not genuine (whether or not there's an actual magic spell involved). And if a black swan-like costume helps to emphasize both the evil and the intention to confuse and deceive, I think that's very effective and appropriate (and more interesting).

 

[Roberta]

33 minutes ago, bridiem said:

f a black swan-like costume helps to emphasize both the evil and the intention to confuse and deceive, I think that's very effective and appropriate (and more interesting)

 

Though the question we are trying to get to the bottom of is when such a costume became the norm and so the 'tradition' of calling the famous PDD, beloved of galas, fouettés or no fouettés,  'Black Swan' and Odile the 'Black Swan' actually came about. Obviously Odile is not a swan! 

 

Alastair Macaulay stated his view, which I quoted way back, here is the context, we are testing if he was right or perhaps (gulp) not! Or mainly right with a few random black tutus thrown in the mix?   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/arts/dance/odette-odile-in-swan-lake.html

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by Roberta

[Fonty]

Of course Odette has been changed into a swan, along with lots of other women,  otherwise the ballet wouldn't be called Swan Lake.   However, at certain times they revert back to being humans for a short while( presumably after dark)  I can't remember what the exact reason is given for this in the programme.  But this is quite a common concept in stories relating to wizardry, that at a particular point in 24 hours the enchantment is at its weakest and the real person bursts through.  But the magic spell means that the memory of the bird lingers in their human bodies, hence swan like movements.  Siegfried certainly doesn't fall in love with any kind of bird, but a woman who possesses some characteristics of a swan.  The fact that she is wearing feathers is more to do with emphasising the magic than anything else.  I suppose all the ladies could revert to the outfits they were wearing when kidnapped and transformed, but it would certainly look a bit messy on stage

If Von Rothbart can transform hordes of women into swans, I would assume that making his daughter look like Odette would be a very simple matter.  And of course she would mimic the swan like movements, it makes sense that Siegfried would expect this; in fact it would be a bit odd if she didn't.  As far as him not realising this is a completely different woman, I don't find that odd at all.   I am sure most of us females on here look rather different when dressed for an elegant party than in our usual everyday sensible outfits of jeans and jumpers or whatever.  I rather like the idea of Odile being in a brightly coloured costume, as if she is wearing her favourite party dress. 

[Amelia]

19 hours ago, Sebastian said:

>>In a review of Kshesinskaya in Swan Lake in 1901, it states: "The ballerina was very effective in the second act, in her elegant black dress, which went so well on her, and danced the famous pas d’action with aplomb and great artistic finish.”

 

Black dress in 1901! More than a century ago. This seems to be the end of the discussion about when the black dress appeared..

 

19 hours ago, Sebastian said:

>>Maya Plisetskaya notes this: "The division into the “black” and “white” adagios came to the Bolshoi from the West. The foreign ballet troupes that began visiting at the end of the 1950s reinterpreted Odile, the daughter of the evil genius Rothbart, as the black swan. This division took root."

 

        Oh, Sebastian, your post compelled me to dig into the original Moscow edition of Maya Plisetskaya’s memoirs of 1994. I hugely respect her but here I find hard to understand (1) what the word “division” means in this case, (2) why it came from the West and (3) why it was the West that reinterpreted Odile as the black swan.

        When I saw my very first "Swan Lake" at Bolshoi in 1947, with Plisetskaya & Preobrazhensky, there were the “black” and “white” adagios in different acts, obviously they were different. So what kind of division could come from the West?

       I carefully keep the brochures of the very first tours of the Paris Opera Ballet (1958) and the Royal Ballet (1961) in Moscow. None of them brought "Swan Lake”, so their tours won’t have any impact on the Russian Swan Lake. (There was also a personal appearance of Beryl Grey in "Swan Lake" in 1958).  It looks like the accuracy of some facts even in the memoirs of direct participants might be unclear.

       Regarding the West’s reinterpretation of Odile as the black swan I am also not sure. Why from her first SL performances in 1940s and throughout her career Plisetskaya danced Odile with enormous wing-like black feathers on her head? Was she a black swan or staged a bird masquerade to deceive the prince, who knows?

I like bridiem’s conclusion: "Neither are actually swans, but who cares. I think it's a scintillating story."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQpvZv10q0

Edited March 23 by Amelia
Spelling corrected.

[Roberta]

5 minutes ago, Amelia said:

Black dress in 1901! More than a century ago. This seems to be the end of the discussion about when the black dress appeared.

 

Though it appears it wasn't at all routine, if indeed it was black and not that dark blue discussed earlier.  Also, nothing to say she was wearing black in that act to be a Black Swan?  

 

Doesn't really help matters about when the PDD and Odile morphed into being referred to as 'The Black Swan'! I've now viewed many many costumes and certainly there's a huge variety in the past. 

 

(Also, Kshesinskaya /  Kschessinska  tended to be a law unto herself I gather, it maybe wasn't the approved outfit but her own tutu, and possibly she flashed her diamonds too, to dazzle Siegfried, hers being very real and gained from being not all she ought to be?) 

 

[Roberta]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

I can't remember what the exact reason is given for this in the programme.

 

 I suspect there as many reasons given as there have been productions (thousands since 1877) and the story changes from one to another.

 

Alastair Macaulay in the NYT has  another stab at it, in that piece that sparked off this discussion. 

 

Remember folks, none of this is real, it's all a figment of the imagination! 

 

[Geoff]

6 minutes ago, Roberta said:

Remember folks, none of this is real, it's all a figment of the imagination! 

Oh I don‘t know. As Danny Kaye would sing: 

 

"A swan? Me a swan? Ah, go on."  
He said, "Yes, you're a swan. Take a look at yourself in the lake and you'll see." 
And he looked, and he saw, and he said, "I am a swan! Wee!"

 

[Roberta]

5 minutes ago, Geoff said:

"A swan? Me a swan? Ah, go on."  
He said, "Yes, you're a swan. Take a look at yourself in the lake and you'll see." 
And he looked, and he saw, and he said, "I am a swan! Wee!"

 

 

What with this thread and the one where everyone is sucking their lemons because a young woman & her pal wore tutus at the ROH, I'm off to dig out MY black one and FLAUNT myself.  FLAUNT. 

 

 

 

(Reality check... I doubt it will fit...) 

[Scheherezade]

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

 

What with this thread and the one where everyone is sucking their lemons because a young woman & her pal wore tutus at the ROH, I'm off to dig out MY black one and FLAUNT myself.  FLAUNT. 

 

 

 

(Reality check... I doubt it will fit...) 

 

I have a friend, not young and now US resident, who frequently, and happily, wears tutus (albeit the longer variety) when attending the ROH.

[Roberta]

15 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

I have a friend, not young and now US resident, who frequently, and happily, wears tutus (albeit the longer variety) when attending the ROH.

 

 

I'm currently ordering yards and yards of net and some sequins online and looking for the old sewing machine... 😉 Oh sequins. I love those. 

 

Good for your friend. I even have a pair of vintage black elbow length gloves, and sparkly Doc Martens. I need a headdress and all set to go. 

 

Why not. Life's short.  

 

 

[Fonty]

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

 

 

I'm currently ordering yards and yards of net and some sequins online and looking for the old sewing machine... 😉 Oh sequins. I love those. 

 

Good for your friend. I even have a pair of vintage black elbow length gloves, and sparkly Doc Martens. I need a headdress and all set to go. 

 

Why not. Life's short.  

 

 

 

 

Absolutely.  Go for it.    I might wear a ballgown when I next go to the ROH.....

[Roberta]

Just now, Fonty said:

Absolutely.  Go for it.    I might wear a ballgown when I next go to the ROH....

 

Oh yes. No point in having those if you can't wear them, boned bodices and all the rest. 

 

 

[Fonty]

Getting back to the topic of Swan Lake, I must admit that I have never thought about why Odile always wears a  black tutu.  I simply had vague thoughts that it was meant to be a gorgeous evening outfit appropriate to a court ball.  It never really crossed my mind that it was apparently supposed to show evil.  How would people feel if Odile came out in a bright red number?  Or a gorgeous midnight blue?  It would certainly be different, and as far as I am concerned wouldn't detract from the story at all.    

[alison]

I'm pretty certain that a Russian touring ballet company I saw touring to the Fairfield Halls had a half-black, half-white tutu for Odile.

[Roberta]

4 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Getting back to the topic of Swan Lake, I must admit that I have never thought about why Odile always wears a  black tutu.  I simply had vague thoughts that it was meant to be a gorgeous evening outfit appropriate to a court ball.  It never really crossed my mind that it was apparently supposed to show evil.  How would people feel if Odile came out in a bright red number?  Or a gorgeous midnight blue?  It would certainly be different, and as far as I am concerned wouldn't detract from the story at all. 

 

 

Well if you read back through the posts you will see that from the outset and for many years that's exactly what happened!  And now we have the mindset that Odile is a 'Black Swan' (she isn't) and the PDD is the 'Black Swan PDD'  I suspect change would be controversial. 

[Fonty]

4 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

 

Well if you read back through the posts you will see that from the outset and for many years that's exactly what happened!  And now we have the mindset that Odile is a 'Black Swan' (she isn't) and the PDD is the 'Black Swan PDD'  I suspect change would be controversial. 

 

Yes, I know.  I suppose this change is the same as the changes in Giselle, where the production (at least at the ROH) insists that she is a suicide buried in unconsecrated ground.  I never remember this being the norm when I was a child.  

[James]

1 hour ago, alison said:

I'm pretty certain that a Russian touring ballet company I saw touring to the Fairfield Halls had a half-black, half-white tutu for Odile.

You are right, Alison. It was Moscow City Ballet. 

[Amelia]

On 22/03/2024 at 08:09, Geoff said:

This is interesting Amelia, thank you. I must check the books but might I ask a simple question? Tchaikovsky died in 1893 (the Swan Lake score having of course been composed many years before). My understanding is that discussions about mounting a new production did not start until after the composer was no longer alive, with the first night two years later. Is that right?

 

       I remember very well, Geoff, that I owe you an answer to your question. It took time because I contacted several people whom I could trust on this issue.
     My good old friend who for decades had been providing the monthly "Letter from St. Petersburg” for The Dancing Times decided first to confer with a colleague who is an expert on XIX c. Russian ballet. This is his reply:
     "I had a long conversation with O.F., she is super. So, she says that there are no documents regarding the negotiations, since everything was verbal, in thoughts among plans about The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker."
      I became intrigued myself: if there are no documents regarding the negotiations with Tchaikovsky, then from which source is it known about the verbal negotiations and how this information has survived for over 130 years?
     I am waiting for a response from another expert, this time in Moscow. He's incredibly meticulous.

Edited March 25 by Amelia
typo