Swan Lake Opening Night Pictures: Nakamura and Postlewaite

In a new feature of Seattle Fine Arts Examiner, we will bring you some of Angela Sterling's fantastic work, showcasing the beauty and grace of the Pacific Northwest Ballet's opening night.

We hope to bring you these to keep your appetite satiated until we bring you our full review of Swan Lake.

Here you can see principal dancers Lucien Postlewaite and Kaori Nakamura in opening night action.

The preview for the show encapuslates what we saw last night:

Classical ballet at its thrilling best and the most beloved story ballet of all time—Kent Stowell's magnificent Swan Lake returns to the McCaw Hall stage where it last appeared to standing-room-only audiences.

Famous for its romantic, treachery laced plot and enchanted setting, Swan Lake is equally renowned for offering ballerinas the ultimate challenge of a dual role: Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan, and Odile, the temptress daughter of the malevolent sorcerer Baron Von Rothbart, who plots the downfall of Odette's true love, Prince Siegfried. Virtuoso solos, an achingly beautiful score and a majestically ethereal corps de ballet make Swan Lake an endlessly satisfying performance experience.

Pacific Northwest Ballet's Swan Lake, sumptuous with scenic, costume and lighting design and detail, made its world premiere in September 2003, as the Company's historic grand entrance into Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

Swan Lake is considered by many across the globe to be the greatest classical ballet of all time. With its fantastical plot filled with romance, sorcery, and betrayal, Swan Lake offers ballerinas the ultimate artistic and physical challenge of a dual role – Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan, and Odile, the temptress daughter of Baron Von Rothbart, who plots the downfall of Odette’s true love, Prince Siegfried. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 1981 production was a significant milestone as the first full-length ballet re-created for the Company.

The current production of Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake, in a revised staging and featuring new scenic, costume and lighting designs by Ming Cho Lee, Paul Tazewell and Randall G. Chiarelli (respectively), premiered to critical acclaim in 2003 to open PNB’s inaugural season in Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

We hope to bring you a full review later but in the mean time, we can tell you that grace, elegance and personality summed up the first act, whereas the words we were scrawling in the dark after the first break were beauty, athelticism and precision. In more agricultural language, the PNB NAILED it!!
 

Swan Lake
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Kent Stowell
Scenic Design: Ming Cho Lee
Staging: Francia Russell after Petipa/Ivanov
Costume Design: Paul Tazewell
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli