Swan Lake
天鹅湖

Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875-1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer 's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on 4 March 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
《天鹅湖》为彼得·伊里奇·柴可夫斯基于1875—1876年间创作的芭蕾舞剧。该剧原来由四幕组成，改编自俄罗斯民间故事，讲述了一位名叫奥黛特的公主被恶毒的巫师施咒变成天鹅的故事。朱利叶斯·赖辛格为原版的作品编舞，于1877年3月4日由莫斯科大剧院芭蕾舞团在莫斯科大剧院首演。

Many critics have disputed the original source of the Swan Lake story. One of the possible sources is that the libretto is based on a story by the German author Johann Karl August Musäus, “Der geraubte Schleier” (The Stolen Veil). The Russian folktale “The White Duck” also bears some resemblance to the story of the ballet, and may have been another possible source.
关于天鹅湖故事的起源，众多评论家意见不一。其灵感可能来自一个叫《失窃的面纱》的德国故事，作者是卡尔·奥古斯都·姆赛斯。另外，俄罗斯的民间故事“白天鹅”与该剧也有相似之处，因此也可能是它的出处。

The libretto plays a crucial role in the Swan . Two different versions, one tragedy and the other with a happy ending, are most of the time intermittently played on stage. In the tragic one, Prince is still blinded by sorcerer's spell and ends his life with Princess Odette; in the happy one, Odette gets rescued by Prince and love and kindness finally triumph over evils.
在《天鹅湖》里，剧本可以说是举足轻重的。本来有两个差别很大的版本,但通常它们会混合着上演。在第一个版本里，王子被幻象所惑，和奥黛特双双坠入湖中。但在另一大团圆结局的版本中，奥黛特被王子营救，爱情和善良最终战胜邪恶。