A modern retelling of the tragic tale, taking the love triangle of Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles as its cue. Murphy pays homage to the white and black acts of the traditional Swan Lake, with this duality and the corps of swans becoming a metaphor for Odette’s descent into madness, then release.
Odette: Juliet Burnett
Prince Siegfried: Rudy Hawkes
Baroness Von Rothbart: Miwako Kubota
With The Australian Ballet and The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
Capitol Theatre, Sydney 2015
“Burnett had the audience in the palm of her hand."
Michelle Potter on Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, 22 February 2015
Choreography: Graeme Murphy
Creative Associate: Janet Vernon
Music: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Concept: Graeme Murphy, Janet Vernon and Kristian Fredrikson
Costume and set design: Kristian Fredrikson
Lighting design: Damien Cooper
"Burnett and (Rudy) Hawkes make fine partners. They move together smoothly and sympathetically, as one really. As a result I wasn’t watching technique, although I did love those expansive sissones from Burnett in Odette’s solo ... but I was following the story, which was developing with immense clarity. And I got the feeling that the rest of the audience was as absorbed in the unfolding narrative as I was.
A really unusual and very beautiful, almost palpable silence filled the auditorium … the story took over. It was deeply moving.”
Michelle Potter on Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, 22 February 2015