The Lake

With 75 dancers on stage, exquisite costumes, and the powerful Orchestre des Grands Ballets, The Lake is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the season. In this bold reinterpretation of Swan Lake by Ivan Cavallari, the plot leaves behind the enchanted kingdom for the set of an advertising studio, where an advertising campaign for the two perfumes, Vertige Noir and Cygne Blanc, is being shot.

In this original dramatic setting, the characters from the original tale take on new forms, and the iconic white act, with its procession of swans, finds new resonance here. Drawing on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake score as well as his Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, Cavallari makes Odette’s metamorphosis into a white swan a rite of passage, one in which the climb to the top comes at the cost of a gradual loss of self.. Combining fascination, control, and the quest for identity, The Lake offers a fresh take on the myth, as distinctive as it is unexpected.

ACT 1 – 50 minutes

Odile, a sensual muse and acclaimed dancer, is the face of the Vertige Noir fragrance. Seemingly reigning over a contemporary advertising world built on illusions, she stars in a new campaign alongside her lover Siegfried, a principal dancer at the height of his fame. But it doesn't take him long to notice Odette at a bus stop, a young dancer from the Imperial School who has just brilliantly passed her end-of-year exam. Seeing in her the future face of the Cygne Blanc fragrance, he invites her to audition at the studio, quickly disrupting the established order. Inspired by the legacy of her masters Tchaikovsky, Petipa, and Ivanov, Odette has yet to realize that hidden behind these three admired artists is von Rothbart, a malevolent force. Naive and unguarded, she believes in merit, beauty, and the ideals of her craft. Little by little, Odette is drawn into a world where dreams, ambition, and reality blur together—a world whose unwritten rules… and traps are entirely unknown to her. Her presence stirs Odile's jealousy, which erupts into fury when she discovers Odette, her rival, in Siegfried's arms, and sees the place she thought was hers begin to slip away.

Bewitched by a cloud of Vertige Noir – found in Odile's bag – Odette surrenders to a dreamlike vision. The three creative directors of the advertising agency take on the guise of Rothbart, sinister figures who preside over her slow metamorphosis into a white swan. Here, Cavallari draws on the dark, turbulent strains of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” Seduced by the promise of an exceptional career, Odette signs without hesitation the contract that will make her the new face of the Cygne Blanc fragrance.

INTERMISSION – 20 minutes

ACT 2 – 47 minutes

On set, a frenzy of camera flashes, touch-ups and shouted commands gradually transforms Odette into something she is not. Behind the polished veneer of fame, she discovers a system where every detail is shaped, corrected, and constrained. Caught in the machinery of a world ruled by appearances and manipulation, the young woman sees her dream slipping away as reality turns into a nightmare.

Caught in the grip of a power that seeks to possess her and confine her to the role written for her, Odette refuses to be erased by the glamour forced upon her. She rises up against the hold of Rothbart’s three spirits. Her rebellion summons the return of the white swans, who, in a sublime pas de quatre, surround and protect her. When she reappears, finally dressed in the costume she had always dreamed of, she joins Siegfried in a passionate pas de deux. But their momentum is abruptly interrupted by Rothbart, now transformed into three menacing black swans. Siegfried attempts to come to her aid, but is quickly repelled. Left alone to face the ultimate trial, Odette finds the strength within herself to break her contract and lift the spell, reclaiming her humanity and restoring that of the swans. In the distance, however, Rothbart’s three shadows still seem to loom over Odile…