It has been danced many times but its charm never fades. On the contrary, every production is looked forward to with wistful trepidation, a feeling that intensifies in the heart with each repetition of the miracle created by those winged young girls. This is the magic of Swan Lake. It is the quintessential ballet with its bewitching flock of swans, and its double female role (Odette – Odile, innocence and cunning), providing a testing ground for a ballerina’s artistic and multifaceted acting abilities. You should not let a single production go by unseen. The performances by the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre at the Giovanni da Udine in Udine and the Verdi in Pordenone, prove that classical ballet, when it is performed by companies worthy of such a repertoire and in keeping with its original grandeur, can fill theatres, and that two performances are sufficient. Young in terms of when it came into being and the age of the performers, SPBT brings together young talents picked from the most significant Russian dance academies, who reach the heights of performance. This is a refined, first rate ensemble that cares about all aspects of the staging, which combines freshness of expression with academic strictness and respect for the repertoire...

The strong aspects of this Lake are the lead dancer and the female corps de ballet who are faultless in this production (the complete Petipa – Ivanov version revived by Konstantin Sergeev in 1950). Perfect unison is attained by the white swans, they stand strictly in line with their arms raised in imitation of swans’ necks, the choreographic refinement in the pas de quatre is a thing of clarity; all this gives both white acts their poetic charm. Alongside this, the lyricism of Irina Kolesnikova is superb to see. The straightness of her spine, the subtle way she works her arms and the mature way she interprets the role: abandoned and lyrical as the White Swan, crafty and seductive as the Black, she possesses in equal measure, the perfect technique and multifaceted expressiveness demanded by the role. Tender in the Odette role, hard and determined as Odile, she deserved all the ovations she received.