The 19th century saw the birth of the evening-long, extravagantly staged ballet spectacle and giant leaps in the art of choreography. In Copenhagen, August Bournonville created a classic dance repertoire for the Royal Danish Ballet. The French-born Marius Petipa immigrated to St. Petersburg in 1847 and developed a Russian school that flourished brilliantly under his direction. One of the most progressive trends of late-19th-century ballet was the desire for music that was not merely serviceable but of high artistic quality and an integral part of the scheme. Enter Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky’s natural affinity for music that dances is apparent in virtually everything he wrote. Many 20th- and 21st-century choreographers have found the Russian composer’s music a source of inspiration, a musical peg on which to create ballet. However, Tchaikovsky’s entrance into the ballet world came out of necessity as well as interest.

When he was 35, before Nadezhda von Meck came into his struggling life as bountiful benefactor, the need for ready cash was the chief impulse for his accepting a commission to compose the music for the ballet Swan Lake. Tchaikovsky wrote to composer Rimsky-Korsakov in 1875: “I accepted the work partly because I need the money, and because I long cherished a desire to try my hand at this type of music.”

When the badly staged 1877 premiere of Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre was shrugged off and dismissed, the composer was not surprised. Shortly after the ballet’s failure, he wrote in his diary: “Lately I have heard the very clever music of [French composer Léo] Delibes. Swan Lake is poor stuff compared to it. Nothing during the last few years has charmed me so greatly as this ballet of Delibes.” Delibes notwithstanding, Tchaikovsky retained enough faith in his balletic abilities to compose The Sleeping Beauty (1888–89) and The Nutcracker (1891–92). He did not live to witness the success of Swan Lake at its 1895 revival, with new choreography by Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

For many decades, this stage piece has stood as possibly the best-loved of all the “white” ballets, so-called for the color of the dancers’ tutus. It’s the ultimate romantic dance work that floats, shimmers, and whirls on Tchaikovsky’s wondrously inspired music. Any true balletomane is quite willing to suspend reality and believe in swans that are actually enchanted maidens free to resume human form only at night; in dashing Prince Siegfried, who loses his heart to Odette, the Queen of the Swans; in the evil magician Rothbart and his wicked daughter Odile, who trick the Prince and thereby victimize the Swan Queen. And then one must be able to shed a tear at the poignant ending, in which the reunited lovers choose to die together.

In the time-honored tradition of evening-long ballet, Swan Lake includes several divertissements that have nothing to do with the story, and this suite boasts three dashing national dances—Hungarian, Spanish, and Neapolitan. It’s not surprising, considering his artistic range, that Tchaikovsky is as triumphant in writing “foreign” music as he is in creating romantic Russian ballet music of both poignancy and brilliance.

—Orrin Howard