Opera and Ballet Stories in Music    

Lesson 27: Swan Lake - Act 4

by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Performer: European Archive

Directions

Read the lesson text and listen to the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Read the synopsis.
• Review any vocabulary terms.
• Read about the composer.
• Complete the enrichment activities.

Synopsis

In Act 4 of Swan Lake, Odetta, escapes her fate by throwing herself into the water at night time, when she has human form. When Siegfried discovers his error and hears the news of Odetta's death, he also puts an end to his life, but in the bittersweet ending, the souls of both are reunited in the magic world of everlasting happiness [1].

Composer

1. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia. Examine his picture.

2. Zoom in and find Tchaikovsky's country of birth on the map of Europe below.

3. Tchaikovsky took piano lessons starting at age five and wrote his first composition, a waltz in honor of his deceased mother, at the age of fourteen.
4. Although as an adult Tchaikovsky first worked as a civil servant, he found his way back to music, enrolling in the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
5. Tchaikovsky worked as a music professor and a composer and was eventually voted into the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.
6. Tchaikovsky died in 1893 at the age of 53, possibly from cholera due to drinking bad water.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Recite the Ballet Information

• Recite the name of the composer, the name of the ballet, and the act and scenes of the ballet.

Activity 2: Recite the Dramatis Personae

Read aloud the Dramatis Personae.

• THE REIGNING PRINCESS.
• PRINCE SIEGFRIED, her son.
• BENNO, friend of SIEGFRIED.
• WOLFGANG, tutor of the prince.
• ODETTE.
• VON ROTHBART.
• ODILE.
• MASTER OF CEREMONIES.
• HERALD.
• Ladies and gentlemen of the court, guests, peasants, servants, swans, owls, etc. etc.

Activity 3: Listen to the Ballet While Reading the Text

• Play the ballet music softly in the background.
• Take turns reading aloud the scenes.

Activity 4: Narrate the Lesson

• Narrate the lesson events aloud in your own words.

Activity 5: See a Ballerina in Swan Lake Circa 1950s

Study the image of ballerina Margaret Seymour dressed for a performance of Swan Lake at the Empire Theatre, Sydney, Australia, 29 October 1958.

References

Evans, Edwin. Tchaikovsky. New York, New York. E.P. Dutton and Co. 1906.

'Margaret Seymour, Royal Ballet by Norm Danvers (CC0)' Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Seymour,_Royal_Ballet,_dressed_for_Swan_Lake_in_her_dressing_room_at_the_Empire_Theatre,_Sydney,_29_October_1958_-_photographer_Norm_Danvers_(8143611232).jpg. n.p.