Swan Lake Studies 33-34
33, 34. “Swan Lake” studies resumed. An incident in the opening scene now seldom seen is the teasing of Wolfgang, the prince’s tutor, by the peasant girls. But it’s part of the dramatic texture of the opening scene, as is the wine it’s about.
It’s Prince Siegfried’s twenty-first birthday; he and his friend Benno do occasionally drink wine. That’s why his mother (who does NOT give him a crossbow - see 5 in this series: July 10) warns him not to drink but instead to mind his princely responsibilities - and to choose a wife. Later, we realise that Benno was not his only companion to enjoy wine. Wolfgang, Siegfried’s old tutor, is slightly the worse for alcohol as he has a scene with the peasant girls: they run around him in a ring, charm him, and he tries to dance with one of them. The dance he attempts is old-fashioned and undemanding; nonetheless it’s more than he can handle, so that he loses balance. But a dance has begun; the peasant girl finishes it ebulliently without him, in an appealing release of energy and high spirits, kneeling at the end to the prince.
In a range of modern productions, the tutor and the peasant girl are replaced by other characters : a jester, the prince’s young sisters. These blur the point. Teasing of any kind has become an un-p.c. form of stage behaviour, but Wolfgang’s scene with the peasant girls should show neither lechery on his part nor active malice on theirs. He’s just a little too old and susceptible to sustain his effort at gallantry; with dance actors such as Ronald Emblem (in the 1970s), this incident was endearing, nicely showing the dramatic value of youthful energy under control. Turning the girls into princesses makes this scene too posh; turning him into a show-off jester is a tacky effort to replace humanity with flash. This 1943 photograph (by Russell Sedgwick) of Ray Powell, who continued playing the role well into the 1950s, shows how Wolfgang can be a character of real weight; I have also known him played by the Mariinsky Ballet as an elegant man of learning who should never have been drinking in the first place.
At the end of the first scene, when the peasants have left, Benno and Siegfried, seeing swans in the sky, resolve to lead a hunting party for them. They invite Wolfgang to join them; he declines. This small distinction beautifully heightens the courtesy of Siegfried, Benno, and their companions, while adding a tender dash of poignancy in the spectacle of the elderly tutor who knows now he is not as young as he used to be.
Monday 27 July
